Live Wire
by sleepyst0rm
Summary: The Midoriya and Bakugou kingdoms have been at war long enough for people to stop asking why there was a conflict in the first place. Izuku and Shouto, one of the Midoriya kingdom's best bonded pairs, go to extract information from the Bakugou campaign trail. Following a failed escape, the two are captured, and Izuku is declared the prince's rightful mate. A/B/O Crossposted on AO3!
1. Chapter 1

"Shou, go." Izuku breathed, the command puffing up in a frosty cloud in front of him.

From where he was standing, his back fit flush against the broad trunk of a tree, one arm secured against it and the other held close to his chest. When he turned over his shoulder, squinting into the moon-bleached forest, a high collar bit into his jaw, and he hiked up the hem of his cloak to his chin instinctively.

He turned back and glanced back to Shouto, about ten yards in front of him, who had his lips pursed into an anxious line. Though it was tightly controlled, he could feel the fear slowly seeping through their bond like cold sweat on his back. Shouto's gaze was trained on something far beyond Izuku's right shoulder, but he nodded silently and began inching further into the surrounding trees.

Izuku exhaled slowly. Maybe, if they were this far away from where the army was camped, they could make a clean escape. He peeked around one last time, two little fluorescent chips glowing like foxfire, and then ducked in behind Shouto.

All soldiers were asleep by one AM, Izuku reasoned as they moved through the undergrowth. On average, most were asleep by midnight, but the last stragglers were in bed by a quarter past. The most restless ones slept away from the exits, tending to congregate towards the middle of the quarters. Typically, he and Shouto made a point of sleeping in the middle, but in the past few weeks, they had slowly made their way to the outside.

The timing was pretty nice, given how one of Izuku's wrist bracers had shattered a few days before.

It wasn't obvious, considering how he and Shouto purposefully kept their necks and wrists covered, but the feeling of the reinforced metal hugging Izuku's wrist gland shattering was unmistakable. In hindsight, a rapid block with this inner forearm during a training exercise wasn't the best course of action, but then again lucinium was typically more hardy. New bracer inserts lasted upwards of a year and a half, and this one had shattered after a mere eight months.

Thankfully, Shouto had intervened, swiftly offering to take Izuku to the nearest healer. His wrist was weak from an old injury, he had explained rapidly to his sparring partner. Mina, her brow creased with concern, wanted to tag along, but Shouto had explained it was really just the result of him falling out of a tree when they were young, and the healer should set it with no trouble.

Neither Shouto nor Izuku would be caught dead in the healer's tent. Not with the distinct web-like veins slowly creeping from their wrists up their arms.

Not with Izuku smelling the way he would, sans bracers. It would send the troops, all alphas and betas, into a frenzy, if their intel was to believed.

In any case, Shouto had brought them back to their quarters, Izuku clutching his forearm as if one of his arteries had been severed, and made quick work of disposing the shattered, powdery metal in a pouch. Izuku, hissing at the shocks and jolts to his wrist gland as Shouto pressed his thumb sharply into his inner arm, yanked bandages from his own pack to start wrapping his wrist as tightly as would not cut off blood supply.

It was done silently and efficiently, Izuku accepting the soothing mental nudge from Shouto as well as he could. Thankfully, they were relatively practiced in the procedure, but such a thing had never occurred outside their own territory, and usually Shouto was the one needing a temporary bandage, given his temperature control in specific areas of his body wasn't quite where he wanted it to be.

Their mission was over in the first place, since they had gathered all the information they really needed. Izuku preferred to make an exit that was thoroughly planned, and, if done correctly, might have paved the way for a return. Mercenaries weren't looked well upon, but good ones were. It was considered a high honor for a mercenary to be allowed citizenship in the kingdom.

Deserters, however. Deserters were killed on sight.

Those who ran from a battle were considered beneath the kingdom's own enemies. "At least people from other kingdoms have their own system of morals they're sticking to," Kirishima had muttered to Izuku one night over dinner. "But here, you don't just turn tail! There's nothing less.. _emasculating_, you know, that you can do to yourself, than just back down."

It was a shame they had to expedite things like this. Izuku had thought, at least.

For that reason, he couldn't say he was too surprised when an arrow whistled by mere inches from his ear, but he immediately cursed, trying to find his mistake. Everyone in the sleeping quarters was peacefully asleep, they slipped out behind the makeshift training grounds - a weak point he himself had pointed out a week before! He had been brushed off, there was no way someone could have been watching. There was no way someone could have been watching _and _escaped his notice, it was impossible.

Shouto's alarm pierced his thoughts quicker than he was able to find their vulnerability, and immediately, through their dulled link, Izuku snarled _West_.

It wasn't good for complex communication, but it was certainly nice for simple direction. Shouto, or the silvery top of his head, immediately turned heel to streak through the trees like a hare. It would lead them to a denser part the forest, heavy with bracken and bramble, but it would provide more opportunity for cover.

_Many?_ came Shouto's voice, garbled and quiet. Izuku didn't waste time throwing a glance behind them as he broke into a sprint, but instead expanded his senses, straining to hear. His quirk could only do so much for him; a one hundred foot radius of dim awareness was pushing his limits, and he winced at the phantom feeling of a limb being pulling taught in a stretch.

_Two,_ he replied, swiftly ducking behind a branch to avoid another arrow. He paused for a second against his insipidly omegan instinct to immediately flee as fast as he could, trying to allow them closer into his circle. Seventy-five feet only allowed so much, fifty gave him more information - _Two! Two riders, one ranged!_

_Two riders, one ranged,_ Shouto's response was clear and enunciated, just as they had trained.

_Yes! Stay low, _Izuku added, holding his breath as the pursuers came closer. His dry lips pursed tightly shut, his one hand digging into the bark, he weighed the risk of staying in place against running.

Analysis always took too much time, but the preliminary results were somewhat useful. Engaging two riders without using his other quirk would never work, and he didn't have sufficient space or visual information to use it. Either way, it was a bad idea to use the Midoriya kingdom's trademark weapon so rashly in enemy territory - although the identifier of Midoriya would save them from a painful death, he was mostly sure encountering the enemy spying in their territory would piss any Bakugou off.

_Who?_ Asked Shouto after a few beats, right when the two riders had brushed the outside of his inner circle, then diverted off in Shouto's direction. Good.

Izuku pressed his hand against his mouth, stiffening while trying to parse through the meager information. Odd cracking at joints? The horse's fluid movements, hooves against the ground, being somewhat jerky and pained, as if its flanks were being dug into by something sharp and hard..

_Kirishima. _Izuku sent back, trying to clip the dread out of the message. He knew it was cruel to get to know these people only to betray them. He knew it, and yet he was one of the best at the job.

It never got the sick feeling out of his stomach, though.

But why was his quirk activated? He had to hold his breath for an all-over hardening, and his control was shaky at best at handling specific areas. He had noticed that his control wavered when he was anxious, which might cause him to be moving in and out of states like a cat sheathe and unsheathe his claws, but usually it was never to this point.

Finding spies in your camp after four months on campaign must be fairly jarring.

That being said, Izuku was pulling a blank on whoever was with him.

Whoever it was was trained more than a standard soldier. Kirishima was a squadron leader, and this person was at least of that calibre or higher. It was odd - Izuku could pick out subtle creaks in his knuckles and a warm, sweet scent. It vaguely reminded him of the kitchens at home, with cooks laboring over pastries and sweets.

No. He didn't have the slightest idea who this was, and cool fear settled in his stomach. There were a few ranged units, but none of them were like this. All the things that had to go right for an arrow to hit home, the breathing, the strength to hold a bow properly, especially on horseback at night..

_Shou!_ Izuku called over the link, shaking himself free of his thoughts. _Hide in place!_

Muted acknowledgement, along with a worried pang of concern. _Engaging? _

_Ambush. _Izuku confirmed, his hand finding the sword attached at his hip, even as he felt an itching surge of electricity just beneath his skin.

_A little while longer,_ he muttered, and this time it wasn't to Shouto.

_In range. _Shouto's voice came within thirty seconds of Izuku's silent path through the trees, frayed and soft. _A hundred and fifty feet. Enemy slowing. __Possibly __scen-_

Pain, like a branding iron piercing a frozen lake, shot up Izuku's thigh. It made him stumble - only for a second, because the link wasn't strong enough to carry that much stimulus that long. The shock stole his breath away all the same, leaving his heart beating too hard in his chest, and he nearly tripped on his feet before he was able to break into a sprint. _Shou, report! _There was a hesitant pause, prompting something heated and livid in him to order him more forcefully, _Shouto, report!_

_Arrow. Left leg. _Shouto's voice came, chopped and reluctant. There was no inflection, and while he felt a flicker of pride for his reluctance to flinch from pain like that, it was quickly overtaken by a fierce breed of omegan fury.

His quirk was supplying him with things he should be thinking of: how using his left side would be significantly more difficult if not impossible and fighting Kirishima just went up in difficulty. How the fighting needed to end quickly so he could evaluate the injury and treat it at soon as possible. How the variable at Kirishima's side needed to be eliminated first, because who knew how their quirks worked together and beating Kirishima without both his own secondary quirk and Shouto's fire was a problem he hadn't analysed enough to be incredibly effective.

Beneath that, his omega was pacing, claws digging into peat-y soil, very nearly throwing up debris in its wake. Hurting Shou was a very sloppy mistake, said the tight, murky feeling in his stomach.

20%, even without training it for months, would be fine. Activating it was like scratching an itch that had been left twitching and inflamed for too long, and it granted him the speed he needed.

And there they were.

That arrow was immediately trained on him the second his movement was audible, and he didn't even catch a glance at his pursuers before he yelled _Now! _to Shouto. In an instant, a wall of ice erupted behind them, and Izuku took a running jump, paying the sting of an arrow nicking his cheek no mind as he drove his feet into the ground.

Trapped as they were, Kirishima and his partner had nowhere to go as the ground broke and shifted, trees swaying dangerously as they struggled for footing. Izuku could almost hear Shouto's scolding that that was a brash and a poorly thought out plan, and that dry feeling over their bond, barely covered by the pain, was the same as an exasperated look.

All that mattered, though, was getting him out of here.

_Whe- _Izuku began, only to be cut off by Shouto's sharp

_Behind barrier. Left._

_Sustained?_

_Less than five._

Izuku sent acknowledgement in his direction, closing himself off before his curse could be heard. The barrier was weak, if Shou gave it not even five minutes before its structure could be easily compromised. He was sure the shock to the terrain wasn't good for it either, and Shou's assumption that a barrier that was more cosmetic would have been appropriate in any situation other than this.

Really, Izuku would have wanted to have used it to divide the battlefield and offset the arrows, but Shouto hadn't known he considered whoever Kirishima had brought with him to be a much more credible threat that anticipated.

Running with Shouto would slow them down too much, leaving them open to further injury, and Izuku bit back a growl at the idea of Shouto being hurt again. Carrying him with the light given off by his second quirk would be like shining a bright light as to where they were, which gave too much potential for drawing further attention. That, and though Izuku was reluctant to admit it, he shouldn't have used it in the first place.

The soldiers had to be incapacitated here.

In any case, they were struggling to stand from where the ground had cracked and splintered, their horses nowhere to be found. To them, at least - Izuku could hear them fleeing north before they were out of his range.

A wordless question pulled at him over the link, and Izuku glanced towards the barrier on instinct. He could hear Shouto snapping the arrow, along with _Making it work._

Izuku's first instinct was immediate rejection. He wanted to throw the parcel strapped to his leg at Shouto and tell him if he wanted to move, he could run back to their territory. But that wasn't what Midoriyas did, and certainly not bonded units. If one said an injury was workable, it was taken at face value.

Unwillingly, Izuku sent back _Kirishima. When barrier breaks._

Shouto wasn't quite incapacitated, but fighting a known enemy - certainly one that had trained you, and one that assumed you were significantly weaker than you actually are, was significantly easier than fighting a complete variable. If Kirishima had dragged this person out to pursue them, and Izuku had never seen them before, he was betting that they were of his rank or higher, and he trusted him to be able to keep pace and work well with him.

He started moving back, crouched low to the ground to squint into the meager light. They hadn't quite reached the undergrowth yet, so save for the trees and the broken ground, the terrain was clear. That being said, the damage wasn't significant, and while it would probably take awhile before the ground was level again, the shockwave was less to cause damage and more to startle them away from Shouto.

Granted, as part of the bonded pair, he had to keep in mind the possibility of victory for either party. An unknown enemy has Izuku modestly placing himself at even chances, whereas Shouto, even in his injured state, could create distance that put Kirishima at a definite disadvantage. That being said, an injured partner plus an unknown variable was almost as bad as a three on one situation.

Eyes trained on the two Bakugous, Izuku deactivated his quirk. He didn't feel any damage, thankfully, but he scolded himself for the impulsive move either way.

"Oiy, oiy, oiy!" broke his thoughts, and the following fire would have cued him to leap into action if it was a swooping wall, not a burst that catapulted one of the figures into the air. Izuku could only get a glance, but that blonde, bleached white hair combined with a flash of red was enough for his stomach to turn with dread.

Of all the people Kirishima had to bring

"What're you running off for? You abandoning half'n half?" The taunt, followed by an oppressive gust of alpha pheromones, was more than enough to take him off guard. And _oh,_ were these alpha-beta subtype submission and intimidation pheromones. Definitely the most common given off by alphas, they called their immediate subordinates into order and calmed whatever situation was going on.

Kirishima's partner - the heir apparent to the Bakugou throne - thought they were just stupid, beta defectors. Stupid, beta mercenaries who just wanted to get paid. Or stupid, beta defectors that were just cowards.

It didn't matter which one. Bakugou Katuski was going for the kill regardless of their breed of stupid.

Izuku threw himself back just before Katsuki landed, nearly getting caught in the gust of wind that followed the explosions erupting from his palms as they slammed into the ground. _Izuku!_ came Shouto's immediate, sharp call.

_Don't worry-_ Izuku sent back, struggling to orient himself as the dust cleared. He had landed on his feet, but Katsuki immediately broke through the cloud, a feral grin making his expression look wild as another spark lit up his palm. Izuku's brain was too muddied by the pheromones to make the cleanest dodge, but he ducked in time for Katsuki's fist to break and splinter the tree he was using to brace himself.

Too loud! They'd draw further attention at this rate, and they were nearly outnumbered as is. They needed to end the fight, and _fast._

Izuku let his own palm hit the ground as he swept his own leg under Katsuki's feet. Expectedly, his weight dropped against the tree, giving him an opening to quickly tuck forward and roll.

What he didn't expect was such a quick recovery. Katsuki swung a closed fist back as soon as Izuku was in position to leap back, his knuckles slamming into his ear to send him reeling. A shrill noise shrieked into his headspace, and cold fear filled his stomach as he felt his body buckle and fall without any of his input. An old, cold and metallic scent filled his nostrils, and Izuku vaguely recognized the tang of Stand Down.

A signature Bakugou move, pairing blows with pheromonal attacks - most clans could only consciously produce scents from their neck, but Bakugous were known to flood hormones with blows to an opponent's face. It was his fault for allowing him too close, _dammit,_ and damn himself for allowing himself to just stay with half his lucinium.

His body hit the ground, the blow to his equilibrium to too much to compensate for. The ringing had yet to stop, but Izuku forced himself to roll his heavy limbs, planting a hand on the shifting earth.

He could hear Katsuki taunting him, just echoes vibrating the walls in his head. Izuku squinted his eyes shut and forced breaths through his mouth, his nails digging into the dirt as he tried to make himself stop and think. What he needed was time to let his ear recover, at least a minute to regain some form of orientation.

Katsuki had no obligation to allow that, though. He hauled him up by his shirt, Izuku's head falling back limply before he was able to pick it back up. He couldn't squint through the moving, blurry shapes, but the hot breath puffing into his face told him Katsuki's face was looming right in front of his own.

The same metallic scent crashed down on him, and he instinctively raised his arm (_create barriers create any kind of physical protection_-) before it was slammed into a tree, a small explosion beginning to singe right through his bracer. It sent cold, incredibly sensitive shocks from his wrist through his fingers, and Izuku flinched, turning his face away.

Katsuki leaned in, body crowding his own, words round and irregular in his ears. "You smell _sick," _he hissed, Izuku catching a flash of nearly fluorescent teeth as the tail end of his words were cut off in a snarl. He caught himself buckling slightly under the weight of angry alpha, his chin dipping to press into his chest, but he cut it off at the last second to instead just look hazily back at him.

"Midoriya, huh? Defecting from your own people and turning tail from mine?" He demanded, another overwhelming wave of pheromones crashing down on him, and Izuku was immediately regretting holding eye contact.

Dammit. Dammit, dammit. He still needed time! He needed time for his hearing and sight to be workable, but the pheromones were making it difficult to even keep his eyes open. He needed to maybe signal Shouto, but he couldn't even get a read on how he was doing from this angle-

"Oiy!" Izuku grunted as the back of his head was smacked against the unforgiving bark. Mentally, he reset the timer until he could hear what Katsuki was saying without having to parse through it for a few seconds. "You listening to me, you fuckin' traitor?"

Somewhere, Izuku was vaguely aware of the hand around his bracer slowly singing through the leather, and sluggish as his mind was, he was begging it to keep up and try and think. The bracer coming off would further compromise their position, and he needed to end the fight so he could make sure Shouto wasn't hurt.

Time. He needed time, and Bakugous weren't the type to let things be calmly analyzed before the next move was made.

Bakugous did usually like to flaunt their victory, though.

Cringing internally, Izuku opened his mouth and bluffed.

"I'm no traitor," he said, despite it feeling like trying to speak with a mouth stuffed with cotton. His voice sounded like it was being wrung out, just a few drops of audible sound sounding pathetic enough to give Katsuki pause.

Only just to snort, a pure white grin pulling the corners of his lips back horrifically. "Y'know, liars are almost as bad as traitors. But at least _true_ traitors can own it."

Pain bit at his wrist, cold shocks and wincing crackles traveling down his fingers. Izuku half worried for the integrity of his bracer, but at least Katsuki's gloating was buying him ample time. "If I were a mercenary, I'd be a traitor," he bluffed back, lips numbs and ears stuffy but God at least the ringing was going down.

It was a wrong bet, Izuku having misjudged his temper. Two pops went off, and Izuku gasped as the closed explosion pierced through the leather on his wrist. The same wincing, cringing pain shot up from his forearms and traveled up his arm like a vein to the side of his neck, and Izuku clicked his jaw shut, turning his face away to conceal his grunt of pain.

Katsuki loosened his grip on his wrist, releasing the tattered bracer to let it clatter pathetically to the ground. The only thing protecting Izuku's gland was the bandaging, but it wasn't enough, and immediately, an acrid scent not unlike smoke began to fill the space between them. Izuku flinched away despite it coming from his own wrist, but as if it were encouraged by his horror, there it was. Right under the sick odor was a tangier, but certainly more clear scent.

Any alpha knew it instinctively, and Izuku could tell the very second it hit Katsuki's nose. His malicious grin fell away, dimming in brightness as his brows twitched together in confusion.

Distressed omega always had _such_ an effect on them.

"You- you're an omega," Katsuki breathed, and Izuku could hear of what sounded almost like horror. He swallowed, and Izuku watched in an off mixture of disgust and fear as his pupils rapidly dilated, his grip loosening.

And then, to his utter fury, Katsuki _presented_ himself. He lifted his chin, and a more soothing, alphan pheromone began overpowering his own. It was warm, caramely, and breathing it in was like curling up in a nest of particularly soft bedding. Just the first whiff made his limbs feel heavy, his eyelids droopy, and he was only able to ignite a small part of himself to throw his forearm in front of his face.

He held his breath, shaking his head like a dog, and pressed an open palm against Katsuki's chest to shove him back. _Barriers, barriers, barriers_, he reminded himself sharply, and he slid away from the tree to get closer to open air.

Katsuki let out the most pathetic noise - a halfhearted growl, a prideful noise, as if another person was interfering with his courtship. Izuku, mortified and repulsed, felt a growl of his own stir up in his chest.

The alpha's brows raised, his ears perked. "Hey-" he began, and Izuku surged forward, forcing his second quirk into action despite the instinctive dimming by the pheromones. It was muddy, it was slow, and it felt gross as Izuku snapped his fist in a quick twist, throwing a punch into Katsuki's cheek.

The force didn't rock back into him as it did when he was just beginning to train this quirk, thankfully, and it sent Katsuki back a good twenty feet, skipping like a stone over water before skidding to a stop. He took the opportunity to glance at his wrist, and cringed at the sagging bandaging.

He could see the silvery webbing on his upper forearm, stark and sickly looking against the white skin that was usually covered by his bracers and even clearer put with the exposed skin that started just below his elbow. The sight made him curse, and quickly, he wrapped the area again, tying sharply enough to make his quirk worry absently about blood flow.

When he looked up, Katsuki, still stunned, was slowly returning to his feet. "Gods, what the fuck?" He muttered, his arms hanging limp as he drew his torso up. "You're an _omega_, you shouldn't be fighting! What are you _doing_?" He exclaimed, advancing quickly on Izuku. The look in his eye as he made his way forward was no longer malicious, but almost concerned. He would call it worried if he didn't know better. "Your alpha - where are they? Why are you fighting?"

Izuku glanced instinctively towards the fight going on between and Shou and Kirishima, his hands clenching into his fists as he backed up to keep the distance equal between himself and Katsuki. The comforting alphan pheromone opened up a blind spot, it felt like, and it was hard to try and parse through how to use this.. development to his advantage.

Would Kirishima be equally as horrified? How could be put himself in Kirishima's way? He hadn't heard anything from them, but it wasn't as if he could have, given the blow to his ear-

"_That's_ your alpha? He's letting you fight?" Katsuki exclaimed scornfully, and Izuku cut off the growl - when had it become so loud? - to snap back.

"There's no 'let,' here." Izuku snapped, surprised at the indignation that made his feet stop and his finger point out accusingly. He had autonomy, _thank you_, and the threat to his alpha's competence made him want to dig his fangs into Katsuki's gland for the poor attempt at presenting himself as a better alternative.

He opened his mouth once more, but something in Katsuki's horrified expression made him close it as he kept moving closer. The distraction made producing those comforting pheromones more difficult, Izuku guessed, as the smell was beginning to dissipate. "Midoriyas.. Make their omegas fight? Midoriyas have blurred those lines that much?"

Katsuki's tone was.. alarmed? It had the same "I need to save you" note to it that alphas from other kingdoms often did, but it was aimed at his own _competence_. Like omegas fighting was such a horrid, demeaning thing for them to do. Like they had to be protected under any circumstance.

It made Izuku feel something furious but also helpless. The way Katsuki was looking at him was pitying, and he couldn't take it.

When he came into range, he approached Izuku like he was a wounded, wild animal. Like he wouldn't understand what Katsuki was trying to do, like omegas couldn't understand another human trying to communicate with him and he couldn't help himself. He reached out his hand like it was Izuku's only salvation.

It was insulting to his own competence, yes, but it was also insulting to his alpha's. He understood the Bakugous placed heavier emphasis on the autonomy of omegas being strictly controlled and protected by their alphas, but this was also insulting Shou's ability to take care of him.

_Work with me, _Izuku corrected himself immediately. _alphas and omegas are units, the power is equal._

The idea that Shou couldn't do that, though, and the idea that Izuku _needed_ that set his blood boiling, and he abruptly gripped the hand extended towards him. Katsuki, loose and surprised in his grip, put up no fight as Izuku turned round to grab his shoulder with his other hand and throw him into the ground in a sharp arc over his shoulder. His body hit the ground, but Izuku noted with no small amount of fury that even though it had certainly gone down, Katsuki was still producing those warm alpha pheromones. Those "I can take care of you" pheromones.

His anger ticked up a notch, because even in Katsuki's culture, soliciting a mated omega - which was what he _ostensibly __looked like!_ \- was sure grounds for their alpha to rip out their throat gland. He wasn't mated, not even close, but dammit, he looked and smelled the part, so why-?

Their eyes locked as Izuku stalked over, teeth instinctively bared as the light of his second quirk cast odd green shadows on Katsuki's face. His eyes widened, his gaze focused directly on Izuku's eyes but still seeming to scan over other parts of his face.

And then, suddenly, he could hear it. Clear as a bell, no intrusion or fuzz.

_I know you._


	2. Chapter 2

_I know you._

The kind of thing Izuku would read in romance novels, those soft things with omegas clutched tight in the arms of their fated warriors. Betas swooning, swearing to hear the voice of their soulmate. Alphas charging off to find the one person that could complete them. It was the stuff of gross, childish books and fantasies. Old books, old myths, old ways of thinking.

_That_ is where the very idea of this was coming from. Obviously, Izuku had been hit in the head one too many times, and his mind was producing senseless imagery of books he snuck away to read by teeny tiny candlelight way past his bedtime. Obviously, this was a fluke, a farce. No one believed in such a thing. No one was young and stupid enough to believe in destined mates! The idea that two people were designed for each other was old and romantic and not at all rooted in reality.

It was ridiculous, and Izuku knew it.

Obviously, Katsuki had opened his mouth in that moment of quiet. He hadn't seen it, he was too preoccupied glaring daggers into his eyes, that red overtaken by the vibrant green of his quirk. He hadn't seen it, but it must have happened.

Even so. Even if his mouth moved, the mere implication of it was enough for Izuku's normally calm, cool line of thinking to go jagged and blood-red bubbly with anger. His mouth fell open in shock, and dimly, he could feel Shou's warning call in the back of his mind. But it was quieter than usual, and instead of what usually heard like hundreds of feet between them, it was a hard wall. One that easily cut through Shou's attempt at cutting Izuku's suddenly hair trigger temper.

Katsuki was fortunate enough to have the reflexes of a startled fox, because when Izuku's fist came down, it embedded itself several inches into the ground instead of the apex of his nose, the loose dirt soft enough for Izuku to get through without the assistance of his quirk. Katsuki had rolled a few feet to the side, his arm coming up to protect his head and his body curled slightly.

"You _know_ me?" Izuku spat, the acidity changing the scent rolling off him in waves from distressed and tangy to wrathful and utterly pungent. It was bitter and territorial, drowning out the remnants of Katsuki's attempt at soothing him with an overpowering display of omegan prowess.

Katsuki scrambled back, heels digging into the soft soil and nails becoming dirty with mud. Izuku assumed that from what he had seen, infuriated omegas were the product of _dissatisfaction,_ and it was immediately confirmed by Katsuki's near accusatory look in the other battle's direction.

It only served to incense him further, but before he could open his mouth, Katsuki's eyes snapped back to his own face. That same look returned, a thoughtful expression that carried his gaze from the fierce, piercing green of his eyes, to the smattering of freckles on his nose and cheeks, and down further to the hard line of his jaw. When he looked up, it was with a defiant nod, as if Izuku were a misinformed tutor.

"Seen you before." He muttered - _aloud, _Izuku confirmed, relieved - "In my dreams."

God_dammit_.

It was plausible that Katsuki had seen him on any number of occasions. State occasions, diplomacy, a battle, even recently while he was in their camp! God knew where Kirishima had been hiding the prince until he had come with him! But _dreams_? Another line that was straight out of the mushy, gross books he would hide under his bed. Another line that also served as the worst opening line in the book, and given Katsuki's earlier behavior, he couldn't tell which one it was.

He must have began coming forward again, because Katsuki was on his feet, rapidly backing up. Without the feral grin, his expression was softer, his face seeming a little rounder without all the sharp edges. His brows knit together, his filthy palms going up. "You're - you're _mine._ And I don't want to hurt you."

Izuku was rendered speechless once again, and in the back of his mind, something told him regulating his power would be difficult like this. He didn't heed it, though, because the pure presumption that those two statements rested on was enough to make his feet move without him consciously telling them to. He surged forward, a fist aimed for Katsuki's gut that landed with a satisfying grunt of pain and the man himself reeling backwards to reach for one of the nearby trees for balance. He bent at the waist, mouth open to draw in a breath, and Izuku was still moving, gripping one first with the other to cock his elbow back and slam it into his jaw with a force that likely would have been lethal had Katsuki not sparked a small explosion that forced him away and back onto the ground.

His fury made him sloppy, and he almost lost his own balance as the blow didn't land. He veered to the right, just catching himself with his foot, only to use it as a fulcrum to pivot and throw the ball of his foot into Katsuki's shoulder in a weak kick to keep him down.

"I," Izuku hissed, fisting a hand in the soft bark of a branch just above his head. "Am not _anyone's_. And I'm definitely not _yours._"

Katsuki coughed, his back turned as he seemed to elect to stand down for now. Izuku circled the fallen alpha, fingers twitching in the fists he had curled them into.

It occurred to him, briefly, that maybe there was some weight to what Katsuki was saying. He wouldn't raise another hand because he believed what he was saying, or because evidently omegas weren't to lower themselves to fight - or maybe that they weren't high enough, or competent enough to fight.

Or - and just replaying the words in his head made him feel cold with fear and hot with anger - _You're _mine. _And I don't want to hurt you_ was nothing more than the truth.

_A truth._ Izuku corrected himself, curling his lip. Maybe that's what Katsuki believed, but it was a truth he couldn't accept. Would _never_ accept.

Shaking himself from those thoughts with a sharp jerk of his chin, he forced himself to remember that, in the meantime, Shou's battle was still going. He couldn't hear them around the mental tunnel vision he had around Katsuki, but he knew it was still going on, and knew the odds of Shou winning the battle were decreasing the longer it went on. He believed in his partner's ability to make it work, but he had to be pragmatic.

His eyes rested on Katsuki, whose chin dipped between his shoulders as he turned himself away.

He didn't know what he was talking about. And besides, he's a damn fool to have hurt Shouto.

Izuku pushed himself forward, only slightly unsteady on his feet now. Katsuki needed to be disabled at the very least, something Izuku was more than capable of doing with the enemy now sprawled against the ground helplessly. He still approached him with slow, cautious steps, as if breaking the wrong branch under his boot would negate Katsuki's earlier conviction. He expected an attack, a wave of fire, a demanding gust of alpha pheromones.

He had heard stories, of course, of omegas treading into the wrong territory, never to be seen again. In other territories, he knew, their population was so dependent upon omegas that their reluctance to give them freedom caused fertility crises. It wasn't uncommon to see omegas bonded to wealthy alphas and be pregnant more years than not while they were still fertile.

Alphas, and occasionally betas, were all the same when it came to those outside his own territory. They thought only with the tools nature gave them, and would sooner give themselves over to their instincts than force themselves to think.

He didn't have any doubt that there would be a desperate attempt to make him stay, one rooted in aggression and dominance. A growl started up in his chest as he found himself bending lower to the ground and paying no mind to the signals he himself was putting out. Still mostly covered by a metallic, sharp scent, was his own furious wave of territorial omegan scent. Had his neck gland been uncovered, Izuku's scent would have been overpowering enough to be noticed by Shouto and Kirishima, but for now it was enough to see Katsuki instinctively tilt his head to the side, baring his own gland.

It was something intensely satisfying to see, some egotistical, presumptuous alpha averting his gaze in a classic display of submission. It didn't alleviate the dark vat of emotion swirling in his stomach, but it tempered it somewhat as Katsuki let out a soft whine.

_Wait._

Izuku started, his foot in the air to close the distance between them. He had been watching his face, taking in the sight of those bright eyes so dim and glassy. He hadn't moved his mouth, hadn't opened it at all.

_It's too dark to be sure_, Izuku assured himself, as if they weren't both bathed in moonlight, and instead snapped a "Stop talking, alpha," with _alpha _ripping off his tongue like a branch snapping off a tree. What right did he have to say that when he himself was going for the k-

_I'm not talking._

There it was again! Izuku was close enough to know that he hadn't, and Katsuki rolled his head to the center of his chest, then lifted his gaze up to look through his lashes at him. Something crackled in the air between them, something intense and palpable. Izuku could feel the force in the few feet separating them, yanking him in by the chest while pushing him back with enough power to knock the air out of his lungs.

Neither one of them moved as Izuku stared down at him, stricken as if Katsuki had sunk a blade into his stomach. Izuku's eyes, glowing an eerie bright, snapped from his mouth to his face to his hands, and the resulting information didn't give him any idea. Katsuki's expression remained strangely.. open, and where his lips, as he'd seen before, had usually been pulled back in a draw between a snarl and a grin, the corners drooped slightly. Almost in a pout, his lips parted like he was about to scent the air.

His eyes remained on Izuku's face, and from where he was on his knees, Izuku could see his breath stir in his chest and pick up slightly. An odd bolt of adrenaline traveled from his throat to his stomach, setting his heart pounding slow and hard enough to be painful. He could feel the aftershocks in his fingers, a steady pulse to make his hands clammy and unsteady.

When Katsuki finally inclined his chin, Izuku took a step back. The air was thick and hard to breathe, and it gave him the feeling of wanting to pull his head out from under the water, inhale fresh air, and shake his head out like there was water in his ears.

His lips felt puffy, his tongue lacked dexterity. His mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, and it took several attempts of him licking his lips to finally force words past the barrier of his throat. "What- what is this?"

He knew his voice sounded weak, cracked and dry like a muddy plane after lots of rain, but couldn't be bothered to care.

Katsuki's eyes traveled down, finally, from his face, to the neck bracer around his throat. They lingered there, then dropped to his unexposed wrist. Izuku's hands closed into a fist on impulse, and his bandaged wrist slipped behind his back somewhat before Katsuki saw fit to speak again.

He dragged his gaze back to his face, and the same flare of electricity erupted in Izuku's stomach as he realized those red eyes had gone from a dull maroon, almost brown, to the color of molten, shifting magma. _Midoriyas call it total thought-lock, right?_

Immediately those sparks fizzled and died from where they had been traveling through his chest to his arms. The light snuffed out, and all that remained was a roll of nausea from his gut, pushing up to the bottom of his throat.

"You're wrong." _You_'_re wrong._ "You're lying." _You_'_re lying._ Izuku shook his head slowly, and then rapidly. His headspace felt muddy and thick, and he just needed to clear it. It was getting harder and harder to breathe too, and Izuku took another dizzied step back.

It sent Katsuki to his feet, just a powerful roll of his weight backwards to stand. Izuku found himself halting in place like a startled hare, as much as he wanted to run. _You're using it right now._

Izuku heard it, clear as a day, soft and calm. Soothing. It rang between his ears, starling him with the crispness and articulation he could hear without mentally cocking his head, or squinting as if it would help the quality. In their early days, he could remember Toshinori's look of worried frustration under all his patience while trying to teach them to use their bond. It always sounded like Shou had his lips pressed against a wall of cotton, and Shou had described it as Izuku not enunciating every word.

Not now. Katsuki's words were so clear he could almost see them written in front of him, right in front of where he was, inching himself closer bit by bit. Izuku remained frozen while Katsuki reached out, almost in slow motion. _It's okay._

_Like I'm an animal_, Izuku thought, trying to rekindle his earlier fury.

_No. _Katsuki shook his head. _Like you're scared._

No sooner did Katsuki rest his hand finally on Izuku's upper arm did Kirishima come crashing into their space, all brash movement and victory. It succeeded in breaking the spell, and Izuku drew in a sharp breath that scraped down his throat while stumbling back and out of his grip-

Only for Katsuki's broad hand to suddenly slip down his arm to his wrist and clamp down hard like a vice. It saved him from a quick route to the ground over the root he was about to trip over, but Katsuki was still in motion, pulling him back towards him. Izuku's nose knocked against the alpha's chest before he could push himself away, and automatically, Katsuki's arms chained around him. One arm locked around his waist, the other going around his shoulders, a hand going up to press his face into his gland.

Retrospectively, Izuku realized he should have noticed his mental fog to be the direct result as alpha-omega pheromones. The same ones occupying the air around them, and the same ones he suddenly was gland-to-nose with. Izuku opened his mouth to protest the blatantly familiar, _inappropriate_ scent marking, but when he took in a breath, the blow to his resistance was so great he felt his legs buckle somewhat.

He could feel the vibrations in his throat, and he knew Katsuki was barking orders to Kirishima, but all of his attempts at ramping up enough indignation to shove him away were quickly being smoothed over by the warm, caramel scent. He wanted to wrap himself up in it, pull it tight around his shoulders and lie down in it. He wanted to curl up in it, pull it over his head and go to sleep in it. It made him feel.. not good, no, but it filled him with an odd, liquid warmth that made his entire body feel heavy.

It filled his senses, dulling the sharp noises Katsuki was making and smoothing the rough pieces of armor Izuku could feel on his arms and chest. His sight was effectively cut off by Katsuki's throat, but he was slowly loosening his hold, his hand no longer gripping his head to hold it close but instead stroking his hair soothingly.

Izuku released the breath he had been holding, then took another breath in, tasting that sweet scent on his tongue. It filled his chest, reminding him of warm summer evenings splitting warm pastries with Shou. It was soft and sweet and tasted like home, and Izuku could swear he could smell the spice and apple that came with winter firesides and-

Shou.

_Shou._

"Shouto!" Izuku exclaimed suddenly, only for Katsuki's fingers to press into his scalp more insistently, his motions soothing and dismissive. Instinctively, Izuku wanted to bow his head, accept the soft touch from the alpha, but his growing panic managed to weasel in between the smooth, soft coos Katsuki was making, like a bug worming its way between the stones in the wall.

"Shh.." Katsuki hushed him, pumping out more of that sweet, delectable scent. No wonder he and Shou used to refer to it as Safe. Trying to leave that feeling was arguably like stepping out into the woods on a moonless, starless night.

Lifting his hand was like trying to drive a punch through molasses, and even worse was Katsuki's head dipping down so he could rest his chin on the top of his head comfortingly. It trapped Izuku's face in his throat while he smeared his chin across the top of his head, and then against his forehead. _Scent marking._

Izuku found his willpower in the possessive, slow stroke of Katsuki's chin from his hairline to the center of his scalp, and it surfaced in one spot. Katsuki was too slow, or perhaps too drugged up in the buried scent of Izuku's own contented pheromones, to recognize a new smell arising. It was like rain, but in the thick of the storm in the millisecond before lightning was about to strike. Like ozone. Like Izuku, but filled with vibrant electricity.

Izuku was half sure the warning out of Kirishima's mouth was referring to the sudden glow around one of his fingers, but it was too late for either one of them to act before Izuku sent his finger flying. It was just a flick, one of the many tricks he had learned while mastering his second quirk, and by far one of the stupidest. For now, at least, it would work, because his fingernail landed on Katsuki's chest as if he had thrown a punch at a third of his power's strength.

His body was thrown back into the air, flying thirty feet before his back slammed into the trunk of a tree. The trunk bent and snapped back, but Katsuki fell into a heap at its roots, stunned.

Izuku staggered back, gasping and pulling in air to fill his lungs with clean, unpolluted oxygen - only to find the same scent coming from the alpha just behind him. It was different, of course, his pheromones smelling like fresh apples and something quiet and clean, but the underlying mugginess in his head was enough to tip him off.

"H-hey," Kirishima said, his hands up as Izuku spun in his direction. Damn it all, Izuku needed space and Kirishima was giving him none. He backed up quickly, fumbling for a latch in his unharmed bracer with fumbling, numb hands, to desperately yank out a stretch of thick fabric. The movements made his now broken finger ache, with sharp sparks traveling down his arm, but there was no time for a brace.

"Izuku - Izuku, listen. You're safe. No one is going to hurt you, okay? No one wants to hurt you, man." The alpha said softly, his hands up, his expression open and soft, and Izuku could recall the same exact expression while he had explained how to handle omegas over a mid afternoon lunch.

He remembered his quiet, almost doting voice, over the rowdy cajoling of eager soldiers, as he explained how omegas were instinctively the quietest, most anxious gender. Their safety, he had said, with an unimpressed glance over his subordinates, was what had to be prioritized.

Anyone can kill prey and give shelter. It takes a _real_ alpha to truly provide for an omega.

Based on his faraway look and the dark scar at his throat, Izuku knew he was speaking from experience. _That_ was a breed of loyalty he could condone, but not the eager snapping of the soldiers around them that had fallen into disappointed frowns at the idea of mating not being something rooted in sex and aggression.

Despite this, Izuku tied the mask tightly around his nose and mouth, his eyes narrowed at the slowly approaching alpha. "Shouto." He repeated concisely, having to breathe slowly and deliberately to bring air through the thick cloth. It gave him some relief from the scent - (_clean linen_, Izuku noted distantly, _that was the other part. A house._) - but didn't secure it off entirely.

"Shouto - the alpha?" Kirishima clarified, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "He's - ah, he's unconscious, but he's alri-"

Izuku's snarl cut the rest of his words off, green streaks of electricity suddenly erupting around his torso to start an erratic current around the rest of his body. The pure aggression rolling off of Izuku in waves made Kirishima blink in surprise, even though it took a second to parse through his muddled scent.

"Wait! Wait, listen. Shouto - that guy you're with. He's fine, he's not hurt too bad. It's really just the arrow, and I think he cauterized it. He's unconscious a few meters back, I can show you if you want! But look- look, seriously, we don't want to hurt you. Really." Kirishima tried, words enunciated and quiet. He looked at him imploringly, palms up; the same stance Katsuki had taken.

But Izuku found himself near breathless with anger, his bright eyes trained on Kirishima's tentative expression and absolutely alight with fury. Those alphas thought his primary concern was his own safety? He had been with Kirishima forever! He should know his loyalty to Shou, that he wasn't nearly as spineless and he made him out to be.

"You _hurt him._" Izuku bit out between sharp pulls of air, "You hurt him, I don't care about how unhurt he is! _Where is he_?"

"Ah- well, technically," Kirishima said, now shaking his hands back and forth almost sheepishly. "That was Katsuki, and Shouto engaged me, so technically it was-"

The look Izuku shot back in his direction was near crazed, and Kirishima snapped his jaw shut. In removing himself from the influence of both of their soothing pheromones so sharply, he had cut off his own body's stable response to his own fear and aggression, leading to what seemed like an overreaction. Kirishima immediately looked away from his face, instead fixing his gaze on Izuku's boots, and took a step back. "Okay! Okay. He's behind me, alright, we were going to take him back for questioning, but it really is a good idea for him to see a healer too. Katsuki got him in a pretty nasty place, so maybe you should come back with us too, just to make sure."

Again! Like he was going to tear into the trees like a startled deer! "I'm not running," Izuku snapped, feeling his own hot breath reflect back on his skin. "I'm not leaving him."

"Right, right. Izuku, I know you don't wanna leave him. I'm saying you don't have to, see? I'll take you to him, and then I can take you back to camp. You remember the healer? The little old lady?" Kirishima asked, slowly lowering his hands. Not a threat.

Izuku's brows furrowed. He knew the healer, the spitfire, tiny woman who could heal the most dire looking wounds with just a brush of her lips to a man's cheek. But he was a day's journey from the border, and he was sure he could find someone to treat Shou's leg on the other side, where it was safe.

He glanced in Katsuki's direction, where he was still crumpled against the ground. His breathing was even and slow, and warily, Izuku decided he was unconscious.

Dragging his eyes back over to Kirishima, he observed the burns on his shoulders and arm, the bleeding from a cut just above his brow. Given how fatigued he was, defeating him wouldn't be _too_ hard of a feat, especially with Katsuki down and their idea that omegas couldn't be harmed.

Fine. Izuku let himself power down, let the unstable power dissipate back into him as he forced himself to slow his breath. The current slowed until it settled back under the surface, a tiny, dwarf star seated in his stomach.

"Okay." Izuku said, stepping closer to Kirishima, his body drawn taut and wary. "Okay. Show him to me."

Kirishima let out a slow sigh of relief, his lips pursed enough so his breath almost whistled out. "Alright. Thanks for trusting me, man. He's right back here, okay? We can get him back to camp as soon as possible, and he'll be just fine."

With that, he turned around, leaving the grove of trees saturated in Katsuki's scent. Izuku watched his back as they moved together, though he kept a solid ten feet distance between them. Kirishima was a close range fighter and a commanding officer - even if he was worn out, he was still incredibly dangerous.

He ducked between a few trees, and then gestured down to the roots of two old trees gnarled together. Propped against the trunk haphazardly was Shouto, his chin raised and his hair falling out of his face.

Also unconscious. Izuku stifled his anger again, shoving down the inner omega that snapped at him to reach for Kirishima's neck to tear his throat out. Maybe if he were a Bakugou, he'd obey.

"You can, uh, check him over if you want. I know Midoriyas usually carry some medical supplies on them, so, if you want.." Kirishima said awkwardly, looking over at him. Izuku grunted in acknowledgement, circling around his alpha's body so he could take a look at his leg while also being able to keep an eye on Kirishima's looming figure.

He knelt, bending to sniff over him with dainty, almost catlike sniffs. Injuries and sickness made it more difficult to fight off lucinium toxicity, but there was no sallow, sick smell to him under that bright, metallic scent, and Izuku temporarily pulled down his mask to make sure.

As if Kirishima could read his mind (and Izuku shuddered to think anyone else could get into his head), he started up again. "Uh, is it alright for him to have that stuff around his wrists and neck? He might be choking or something."

Izuku paused, going to place his ear close to Shouto's chest and listen. His breathing was deep and slow, if not a little shallow, but he suspected that had to do with his lack of consciousness. "Airway's fine." He reported softly, but he unbuckled the bracer around his throat, as was procedure, to check.

Kirishima sucked in a high, almost whining noise of distress at the sight of Shou's throat, a development that made Izuku scowl as he nudged down his shirt to check how low the labrynthing, silvery marks went. The coloration was fine, Izuku finding no problem with how dark the marks were, and his gland had no sign of toxicity swelling. The marks weren't low enough to be worrisome, but he knew he and Shou were due for a break in the upcoming months.

As always, when the bracer came off, Izuku could pick out Shou's neutral scent almost immediately. It wasn't a loud, powerful scent, but more subtle. Like natural hot springs in the tundra, warmth bubbling up under a cold, frosty mint. It set him at ease, and he let the instinctive calm fall over him as he re-buckled the leather securely around his neck.

Next were his two wrists, and Izuku came to the same conclusion there, although the spread of the marks was a bit more alarming on his left. A break was definitely due, but Izuku tried not to let his worry spread to his scent.

"M-man.. I knew Midoriyas had that, uh, _different_ smell to them, and don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be rude, but like - is that safe? It looks a little scary, y'know, and I can kinda see it on your other arm." Kirishima said, breaking into Izuku's thoughts from where he had been turning to evaluate the wound at Shouto's leg.

Izuku glanced up, searching Kirishima's expression. He looked somewhat horrified, as people outside his kingdom usually did, but the hard line of his lips didn't seem to mean judgment, just confusion.

"He's safe." Izuku finally said, looking back down to ease torn fabric from Shouto's bloody wound. "We'll deal with this when we get home."

Kirishima shifted, and he could swear, from the corner of his eye, his expression almost looked guilty. He didn't say anything still, so Izuku just dismissed it as him feeling guilty for having to take them back in for questioning, although even in his own mind he didn't see how Kirishima would be able to get both of them back with a sleeping Katsuki in tow.

He bent his head as he exposed more of the wound, and Kirishima had been right - it seemed cauterized, the worst being the still drying blood around it. Infection would definitely still be a concern, as it always was when Shou had to cut off the bleed like this. It didn't require immediate attention, but that in conjunction with the rest of his wounds called for more attention that he could properly give.

With that said, a salve would be good for most of the scrapes and cuts - surely made by Kirishima's quirk. Izuku reached for the bag on his back, hoping to find the garlic, ginger, and honey blend his mother had made herself.

But before his hand could properly close around the glass jar, a warm, broad hand closed around his wrist, the firm grip just slightly too close to his exposed gland to be at all comfortable. Izuku stiffened, his head snapping up to look for Kirishima. The redheaded alpha was still adjacent to him, just as frozen as he was, and staring at what Izuku presumed to be the owner of the hand making bruises in his skin.

He opened his mouth, but the scent that finally wafted over to him was hot and tightly controlled. Fury, possession, the need to destroy - all rolled into one scalding pheromone that burned his nostrils and made his eyes water.

"Don't," breathed Katsuki, his voice too close for comfort, his breath skimming over the back of his neck. "Don't move."

And there was silence between them once again, that same burning force, except Izuku was the one on his knees, and Katsuki was purposefully keeping in his blindspot. Izuku scarcely allowed himself to breathe, because even with the barrier in front of his mouth and nose, the proximity was making it hard to outpace the scent Katsuki was pumping out.

It wasn't safety Katsuki was offering, either. It was sharp and angry, demanding his total and unconditional submission. It didn't feel like a sun warmed blanket, but a cold, tight cage whose only escape was to tilt his head back and present his throat.

Kirishima grunted, breaking the sudden tension as his arms crossed and he gave Katsuki a disapproving look. "Come on, man. He wasn't reaching for any weapons. He just has that sword."

"I don't want to hear it," Katsuki snapped, steel and fire in his voice, and the immediate need to obey came crashing down on Izuku's shoulders. It made his limbs weak, his knees shaking as he suddenly set his weight back down on his heels. Katsuki squeezed the inside of his wrist a bit more sharply, and Izuku winced, letting the tension in his arm loosen until it was hanging slack in his grip.

"Good omega." He said, his voice notably softer, but with an edge of smoke and flint. Izuku could feel a certain prickling head at his neck, and his head felt like it was heavy and filled with lead. Izuku felt a slow shudder pass through him, unsettled and embarrassed and oddly warm. He had never been referred to by his second gender - hell, he had never _called_ anyone by their second gender, but there was something in the sure, low timbre of Katsuki's voice that resonated in his chest.

Izuku tore his eyes from Shouto to look over his shoulder at the alpha gripping his wrist, and found him staring openly at Kirishima. It was a different kind of tension between the two of them, an unblinking and yet milder kind of stand off. Not quite a challenge for dominance, but challenge in reasoning.

Kirishima raised his jaw stubbornly after a few moment of the standoff, causing a low growl to begin deep in Katsuki's chest. Izuku felt the vibration travel down his arm to his own chest, and the bite of heat just behind it, and again, he couldn't help but feel the need to turn his head down and look away.

Before he could respond, Kirishima finally relented, pushing off the tree he was leaning on and "_Fine,_ man. Do it your way."

The resulting snort wasn't pleased, but it wasn't hostile either. "Shut it," he snapped half heartedly at Kirishima, who rolled his eyes but spared a worried glance in Izuku's direction.

He felt a tug on his wrist, gently easing it upwards, and Katsuki more softly said "Come on. We're going."

And again, Izuku felt it. The impulse to obey the command traveled down his legs, and he planted a hand on the ground to help him push off.

But-

"No." Izuku said softly. He was down a finger, and it pained him when he clenched that hand into a fist. But he still had more than one, and-

"_No_?" Katsuki repeated, an edge of a snarl to his voice. It made Izuku flinch, his head turning away from the hot glare on his face. Something like shame, too bright and glaring in his chest, flared up from the confirmation of his denial, and Izuku gritted his teeth to try and negate it.

"I said," Izuku spoke between nearly pursed shut lips, "No."

He could do it. That same power built up in his ring finger, just two fingers away from his damaged index finger, before Katsuki was pulling him up none too gently. He spun Izuku around once he was to his haphazard feet, stopping his other hand with a hand on the bracer that was still intact.

With eyes like smoldering coals, Katsuki stared him down with his lip curled to reveal only the sharpest of his teeth. "You raise another hand to me and I jam that useless sword of yours into that pretty boy's chest."

Izuku's mouth fell open at the blatant threat, and immediately he was driving forward, pushing at his chest and trying to fight the steady, firm grip on his arms. He aimed claws for Katsuki's face, feet at knees and joints, and teeth at the flesh he could see. Katsuki yanked him in close, Izuku trying to knock his head against Katsuki's chin to make him bite his tongue or break his jaw, but Katsuki merely gave him a sharp shake.

"_Izuku._" Katsuki snapped, the words like a slap of cold air across his face. Izuku slackened, but only enough so he was huffing into his mask instead of jerking and throwing himself at him in a mess of crazed fury. "Either you come with me and he gets needed medical treatment, or you come with me anyway and he dies by your sword. Choose."

Once again, his mouth was agape, and he looked to Kirishima as if he would be of some help to him. The other alpha was pointedly looking away, toeing at the ground while looking at Shou, and Izuku was quickly turned back around so all he could see was the uncompromising line of Katsuki's jaw.

He gritted his teeth, looking anywhere but Katsuki. He had enough adrenaline to push through the utter fury coming off of him, but time was quickly running out until he would be fighting the urge to submit again.

There had to be _some_ way out of this.

Throwing off Katsuki to fight Kirishima would be a losing battle. Kirishima could be defeated, yes, but not in a short enough time to really fend for himself against Katsuki. And Katsuki would be backed up well by Kirishima, never mind the furious wave of submission pheromones that would accompany that.

There was always breaking the terrain, but that would risk harm to Shou, who couldn't move when the earth broke up. Shou could divide the battleground without harming it, but Izuku lacked the control to not completely destroy it. He could always make a break for Shou, and using his secondary quirk, it might be enough to outrun them.

Yes.

Fighting them could never work, he just needed to _run._

Having a plan set his mind at ease, and he just needed to fill out the mechanics. Preview it in his mind, execute every move-

"Izuku," Katsuki said, breaking his thoughts. His expression had lost its ferocity, and there was something soft to it. Indulgent.

Izuku immediately hated everything about it. Amusement pulled the corners of his lips up and crickles his eyes, and Izuku couldn't spot when the glare ended and this- _this _replaced it. Where it came from, what had happened to make him grin so eerily-

"I can hear you."

His stomach bottomed out, the new, hopeful adrenaline swallowed whole immediately. Izuku's breath came out in a horrified puff, and when he tried to take a step back, Katsuki came with him. He opened his mouth, the thought on his tongue, but Katsuki answered his question for him. "All of it."

He glanced back to Kirishima, dipping his chin at him once. Kirishima grunted, then bent at the waist to pick up Shouto and sling him over his shoulder. Izuku hissed just at the _sound_ of Shou being thrown around like that while injured, and the sight of Izuku's expression made Katsuki's scowl return.

His souring expression had Izuku's heart picking up in his chest, fear, for once, beginning to rear its ugly head. He held eye contact, though, hands in fists and eyes narrowed despite the same shame beginning to arise.

"Pick one. You know you can't take down Kirishima and evade me at the same time." Katsuki said, his voice soft but triumphant.

He huffed through his nose and broke eye contact, feeling the relief like he had been staring into the sun. Had he taken out Kirishima the second Katsuki had been down and ran, this would have been avoided, but there - he glanced towards the secure hold Kirishima had around Shouto's legs - was no way he could get away. Not when Shouto needed help, and especially not when he could never abandon him.

Izuku curled his lip under his mask and knew he had lost.


	3. Chapter 3

Of all the things to be angry over, it was certainly a new low to be furious over the architecture and interior decoration.

But then again, Izuku had been staring at the ceiling for a solid hour and a half, having worn through the other activities Katsuki's room provided hours ago. He knew it took fifteen large steps to get down the length of one side of his spacious room, sixteen down the other, and fourteen diagonally if he excluded skirting around the dreadful excuse for a bed - which was just the bare bones version of such a thing, complete with ornately carved posts. It was so _sterile_, it looked completely unused and pristine, and the only thing that told Izuku that anyone had touched it was Katsuki's rich scent.

Rich, of course, referring to the uncomfortable, full-up feeling one had when having gorged themselves on one too many slices of warm cake.

Either way, the territorial omega currently shaking the cage of his ribs in him demanded he tear down the artful tapestries, kick down the bookshelves, and re-scent the plush sheets and pillows on the _insipid version of_ the bed with his own scent to make his own tiny nest in the uncharted territory. Alternatively, he might activate his quirk to kick his desk in half and destroy the rest of the room, and see where that left Katsuki.

He thought of at least pulling out one of the many books crowding the bookshelves to occupy _some_ time, but they were so thoroughly saturated with the coal and heat scent he had quickly associated with Katsuki that he had recoiled with an expression of complete disgust. The closest he came to it was surveying the titles (twenty fiction, the rest nonfiction, usually on topics related to magic and nature), and even then, he covered his mouth and noise with his arm.

Just the thought of his now uncovered neck and wrists sent another furious wave through him. On their walk from the camp to the palace, Katsuki - the nerve of that presumptuous, cocky alpha! - had confiscated his customary bracers and burned them to a crisp while he was asleep. That explosive argument had only been shut down by Kirishima getting between them, a hand on either one of them to prevent them from colliding like two twin sparks. Never mind how volatile lucinium is when it was burned, but Katsuki at least having the sense to burn them away from camp, _thankfully__. _

Thankfully! Thankfully their camp hadn't erupted in purple flames!

And even then, it was still his property! A badge of honor, a rite of passage - and Katsuki burned it without a care in the world.

He allowed the bandaging to remain until he could be formally evaluated by the kingdom's top medic, despite how many times Izuku had opened his mouth to explain that he knew how to evaluate his health with regards to the metal that had been held fast to his skin since he turned fourteen years old. What would bandages do at this point? He had snapped, only to get a red glare in response.

The three day walk back to the palace had been mostly in silence, save for the crunch of their boots on the leaves and grass. It seemed to be normal enough for Katsuki and Kirishima, who communicated with their eyes and brows, but too often Katsuki's eyes rested on him, and more often than not those eyes were narrowed in frustration.

Izuku chose to walk alongside Kirishima, putting him between himself and Katsuki. He tended to Shou, who remained concerningly unconscious, and made sure to position himself to sleep close in case he woke up in the middle of the night. Several times Katsuki had attempted to touch him - to steer him away from where the terrain dipped suddenly, to wake him, to even sit beside him - only for Izuku to pointedly veer himself away, avoiding his hand like it were some new plague.

In return, he often opened his mouth to say something incendiary, trying to provoke some sort of retort. Izuku bit hard into his tongue so the stupid alpha would get nothing but silence in response, and didn't even deign him with eye contact. He prodded him for information about Shou and taunted him with likely false news about the war, if Kirishima's disapproving look was anything to go off of. On top of that, Katsuki avoided paths and roads with a _fidelity,_ and Izuku was sure it was to try and disorient him.

But it was a wasted effort when he had been in the enemy camp for months. Like he hadn't been called in a few times to evaluate the maps and offer his advice. Or like he didn't have a wealth of information just strapped around his leg like a ticking time bomb.

Nothing from his person was confiscated when they got in the palace, either. They slipped in through the heavy wooden doors without so much as a glance from the guards, and then Izuku was promptly thrust into some room with a terse order to _stay there_.

And so, Izuku had. Half out of incredulity and half because he had no knowledge of the palace layout whatsoever, and going without a plan or means to reach Shou made even the jumpy, irascible part of his brain nervous. Things like the main palace's logistics weren't relevant while in the camp, but it irked him still that he wasn't able to extract any further information that would be of any assistance.

He had little intel, but what scarce information he did have was only serving to piss him off further. Apparently Bakugous were fond of their space and didn't care for windows. And evidently no one came by the prince's chambers? No one came by to talk and ask for advice? The wing sounded downright abandoned! No whisper of feet down the hall, even with the use of his quirk.

But even if it made him nervous to consider, this was getting absurd. It had been at least four hours since he had been told to just stand down, and yes, he was a soldier, but that was no man he'd take orders from.

Plus, he needed to find Shou. What if they weren't taking care of him? What if they had plans to hurt him or worse and forcibly pull information from him? Izuku shuddered to think of the barbaric methods of torture he was sure the Bakugous were capable of coming up with, and to think of any of them implemented on his Shou almost sent him tearing through the door with his claws.

Izuku crossed the room with new determination, toes curling in his boots as he rested his hand against the cool wood of the door. He hadn't even heard a lock, and really, if they wanted to keep him in place, they would have thrown him into a jail cell.

He told himself his plan was to find the end of the wing and then double back, but he knew that wouldn't be the follow-through.

The door opened silently, moving on well-oiled hinges that made Izuku wonder what it was about Katsuki and this palace that made this palace so concerned about silence. The surrounding hallway was long but warmly lit with floating bubbles of fire on either side, and when Izuku peered out the crack in the door, there were no guards to be seen. He half expected betas decorated with terrifying, blocky tattoos to shove the door the rest of the way open and put a spear to his throat, but no one came.

He took a deep breath, scenting the air - and still nothing. Just the cold scent of stone. It didn't appear as if Katsuki really roomed with anybody close to him, and when he closed the door behind him - a process just as silent as closing it - the little light seeping out under it snuffed out.

Carefully, hunting boots sliding quietly over the stone floor, Izuku passed to the few rooms on the corridor. Two on his right, one on his left, all looking relatively nondescript with no special markings on any of them. At least Katsuki's door looked somewhat grand.

He approached the first one on his right as if it were rigged to explode if he made the mistake of turning the knob - and it was locked. Of course it was. The knob made the same clicking, stubborn noise with each frustrated try Izuku gave it, and he gave up only after rattling it enough to completely satisfy that odd human urge to verify that it was totally locked.

The other doors followed in much the same manner, and Izuku puffed his cheeks out in irritation when his exploration was cut abruptly short.

Unless…

He turned his attention to an archway at the end of the corridor, where it was significantly brighter. Maybe it hadn't caught his notice before because the light didn't seep in as it would normally, and the far end of the hallway was illuminated the saw way with soft, dim lights in bubbles. It was if the light hit a barrier, halting it from coming any further into the hall.

Slowly, Izuku began creeping closer to the archway, where he could see another hallway intersecting that one. The closer he got, the more he could see: people _were _milling about, speaking animatedly, gesticulating wildly. They were in each other's space, shouting, grinning, gripping an arm for emphasis and generally crowding into each other. Most were dressed in armor of some kind, their customary reds and oranges and whites worn under leather or metal, and most carried weapons.

Inching closer, he could even pick out more of the palace itself. It was clearly huge, extravagant, and spared no area unfurnished or uncovered with art. Several stories high, with two grand staircases opening the first level to the upper level. The center remained empty, halls branching off at angles like spokes on a wheel, and balconies made up each floor to keep the castle open. He could almost look directly up, if it weren't for the ceiling obscuring part of the topmost part of the inner palace.

Unthinkingly, Izuku pushed forward, past the threshold, and immediately sound crashed down on his ears. The palace was _alive_, voices crowing out to each other, yelling, people shoving each other and pointing. People were walking through all areas of the castle, pushing around Izuku as he went to rest his hands on the warm metal railing.

It suddenly struck him how warm the rest of the castle was. Pleasantly warm, like sitting just outside the kitchens waiting for pastries to be made. Or inside of a bakery, but without the bready smells. Inside the corridor was.. not necessarily cold, no, but cool. With a touch of humidity to it too. It reminded him of being outside in the night right after it had rained.

After the sound came down, next were the _smells_. There was no tempering or moderating one's scent, it was overwhelming beta and alpha scents that just reeked of posturing. Boasting scents that carried fifty feet easily, loud pheromones that allowed Izuku to smell the person down to what mood they were in, even if they were carrying books three floors below him and twenty-five feet adjacent.

It was so overwhelming the scents almost jumped senses completely. Izuku swore for a second he could see purple wafting off one beta and mixing with the blue of one alpha as they shoved at each other amicably. It startled him how readily he was only able to identify people by their second gender alone, and how _powerfully_ it insisted upon itself as the cover letter for their identity. He should have been used to it from being in a camp with several hundred other soldiers, but being in a closed space with them all made the air taste like the palace was ready to burst.

Izuku peeled himself off from where he was pressed against the railing, although he did check his step to allow two betas, linked at the arm, a tiny woman yanking down a yellow haired man to hiss a lecture into his ear, to pass ahead of him. Neither seemed to notice him, thankfully, but Izuku had to guess that the reason why was because he wasn't casually broadcasting his pheromones for all to smell.

He glanced down to his wrists, and then touched his throat. All were still covered by bandages, which he was somewhat thankful for, now that he was out of the room. They covered the grey streaks extending from each of his glands outwards, looking similar to blood poisoning and certainly drawing worry from anyone outside his people who saw.

That was certainly neither here nor there, though. Izuku pushed off the rail, tilting his chin up and walking with his eyes trained on the nearest staircase. He had no idea where in the hell he was going, but no one needed to know that.

Halfway from the corridor to the stairwell, the huge main doors of the palace opened, allowing more light to stream in, and the crowd swarming around the palace's main vestibule immediately parted.

Quiet followed, sudden and almost eerie. Izuku halted in his path, peering over the balcony to see what it was that made the cacophony of noise hush so quickly, as most of the other people in the castle paused to do the same.

In waltzed a man whose alphan scent burned a trail down Izuku's lungs. The incline of his chin, the way his shoulders were pulled back proudly - even the large strides he took all just screamed alpha, and if he couldn't see him, he would absolutely be able to smell him.

The man's pheromones cut through the din of scents like a knife. In a way, they were almost comparable to Katsuki's, but his neutral scent was heat with the slightest hint of something sweet, maybe an afterthought of smoke. This - this was an immediate, vulgar deterrent. It was like poisonous plants being burned, a scent that filled him up and made him able to feel every contour of his lungs. It was like smoke, but not the warm, homey smell that came with firesides. It was acrid, it made his eyes sting, and to keep breathing it in was like a repeated punch to the gut.

And Izuku could barely get a look at him through the sudden blurriness in his eyes. He could barely parse through the horrific, offensive amount of pheromones that were filling the room, but he knew tell the man had an ugly, intrinsic sense of self-righteousness just based upon the territorial fumes on top of everything. It didn't help that his cutting gaze surveyed the room with such condescension, sneering in clear disdain.

Oddly, he felt a strange sense of offense, watching the man turn up his nose - a nose he could barely see through the _flames_ worn on his person like gaudy jewelry. He had to squint to even make out the royal blue and deep maroon regalia and armor under the bright, orange trails of fire that carried behind him somewhat in his wake.

When he could finally tear his eyes away from the lip curling sight of him, he looked to the people on the main floor to gauge their reaction to such an awful display. Of course, the tall man had their attention for the ten seconds he occupied the space in front of the broad doors, with some betas cringing somewhat with their cheeks sucked in as if they had suddenly tasted something sour. But what they were waiting for - their eyes searching hungrily in the empty spot behind him - followed in like a dandelion seed blown away dismissively by the wind.

A woman, her head bowed low, followed with her hands clasped in front of her. Long white hair, shiny and silky looking, tumbled out from under the hood of her cloak, but the hem of her hood was almost long enough to conceal half of her face. The way her cloak caught the light made it appear almost gauzy, the miniscule color in the already desaturated turquoise turning a pearlescent white. Her tiny, porcelain fingers poked through the long, bell-shaped and heavy sleeves, two fingers pinching another on the opposite hand.

She didn't present herself. In fact, Izuku had to strain himself to pick up even the slightest hint of her scent, and it took a moment of focusing to pick it out amongst the rest of the castle..

There it was. The woman made no attempt at pushing through the crowd pheromonally, so Izuku could only catch hints of it here and there. Her scent was the first spring morning after weeks of snow, brisk wind and the tentative beginnings of wildflowers, little green shoots poking out of the ground like the faint wisps of her scent.

Dimly, Izuku could recall exactly what his mother had to say about her exact demeanor and appearance. The soft tunics, the cloaking, the demure avoidance of eye contact, the closeness to an alpha.

_Prototypical omegas._

Those omegas whose second gender was made to be the only thing of importance about them. It reduced them down to their most instinctive level, amplified their need to be protected, and played them into an endless cycle of paranoia and desperation for safety.

It was cruel, it was common, and it was _infuriating._

It shrouded omegas in secrecy and mystery. It made them into a thing of myth instead of a true person, and it turned a curious human eye into a probing, hedonistic thing trying to probe across the material world across the bridge into the other side.

And that's the way these people were staring at the hooded woman. Like she was a passing god, and they wanted to fall to their dusty, dirty knees for a chance to touch the light spilling off her cape.

The woman didn't take her eyes off the tile as they were escorted by two hurried guards, and those in the crowd parted to give them ample room. They moved through the people as if there was a diameter of twenty feet of impenetrable force keeping them at bay, the only the sound in the hall being the alpha's boots clattering raucously on the floor. The hollow noise rang from the floor to the high, open ceiling, shaking the red stained glass just about for all the space he insisted upon taking up, and within the span of thirty seconds, they were seen through another pair of doors exactly opposite to the very entrance of the castle.

Izuku let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding when the doors shut once again. Todoroki Rei and Enji - he had seen them on numerous state occasions, when he was much younger - were usually a sight to behold, and their brief passage through the open room of the palace was no different.

Well.

Todoroki _Enji_ was a sight to behold. He sucked all the light out of a room, along with all the breathable air, and his ambitions knew no bounds. He was an upstart: he inherited the throne shortly after his mother did, and had grown his lands significantly over the past fifteen years. He had united a few pieces of land around the formerly small country to build a sprawling empire - although unite was a strong word to use.

In truth, Enji had razed miles upon miles of workable, fertile land, and then allowed his mish-mash army of loyalists and bloodthirsty mercenaries to divide and conquer the tiny territories until they were willing to submit to his rule.

They called him Endeavor, although in Izuku's opinion, that was likely a moderate suggestion by one of his councilmen.

Another thirty seconds followed the doors slamming shut, and then the hall was in an uproar again, except doubly loud. Izuku winced as the sound burst its way up the palace like a pot boiling over, everything from speculation to posturing to disgusting implications reaching his ears as he kept moving towards that same stairwell. The sound, the noise, even the _sight _of the castle was quickly becoming too much, and he suddenly very much needed to be outside. As much as the nature of the visit intrigued his tactical mind, he brushed away that kind of thought with a shooing conclusion that it had to be some sort of unplanned meeting regarding their alliance. Why else would they be unannounced, but also so casual stepping foot on foreign land?

He slipped down the steps, careful not to skim his palm on the rail of the stairs or brush against anything else, as his scent against the balcony railing was damning enough. He hoped not being a known omega and the combination of his lack of bombastic presenting with the lucinium still having a potent effect on his glands would be enough for him to be able to slip past unnoticed, and it seemed, as he passed down the stairs, that the alphas and betas were much too concerned with their conversations to pay attention to him.

"The Queen seems to be in better health," commented one alpha as he slipped down the stairs, brushing a hand through her spiky black hair. "Hasn't seemed like that since her youngest was born."

"Could be that she's pregnant again," replied the other dismissively, and Izuku had to clench his fist to remind himself not to turn and snap at people in foreign territory.

"Surprising that she hasn't been in so many years, but she might be too old.." she said, adjusting her red frames. "What a shame. They're down to only two heirs, aren't they? Betas?"

Izuku held his breath, slipping into the crowd and rhythmically squeezing his hands into fists to quell his temper and stop it from seeping into his scent. It was already a problem trying to control it without the help of his bracers, but to have something more powerful, like irritation seep in? Too similar to distress, it would send the unmated alphas and betas into a frenzy, not to mention Katsuki.

God, _Katsuki._ He hadn't thought of their ridiculous bond, superimposed over his link with Shou. Shou was difficult to sense in the first place without him providing a mental anchor for him to latch onto, but with Katsuki overwriting the bond with his own, he couldn't sense Shou at all. It was like pounding on a door, but the door was several feet of stone, and it just absorbed the impact.

Could Katsuki hear him now, though? A few times over the walk, Katsuki had tilted his head to the side in Izuku's direction, and he had been half sure that his thoughts were being thumbed through like an old book. He didn't feel anything noticeable at all, not like with Shou, where if he were in range, he could often feel a sliver of emotion. Phantom giddiness in his chest, frustration welling up in his throat, and sometimes the warm pull of sleep.

He figured it could be negated if it was anything like the original bond. Izuku could remember times when he had petulantly thrown up a block because Shou had stolen one of his treats, or because he had beaten him in a spar too well. It was easy enough to visualize a brick wall surrounding his mind, and it had infuriated Shou all the same to not have that intuitive knowledge of where Izuku was and the general idea of what he was thinking or feeling.

_Damn._ He should have put something up the second he stepped out of the room - or before he even thought about leaving! But there was no voice in his head saying go back, and no anger or hot coals on his neck to the same effect.

Maybe Katsuki was out of range? Where _was_ he, anyway? Where was Shou?

What if they had taken him away from the palace, anyway? Bakugous weren't exactly known for their hospitality - maybe they had already made their way to some other building and were already interrogating him there. Had they managed to wake him up?

Izuku leaned up on his toes, trying to see over everyone's heads. Being an omega didn't exactly lend itself to height, so getting an accurate picture was a losing bet. There had to be a door that wasn't the huge, ostentatious main door out of the castle; there had to be some semblance of subtlety in this kingdom! But he didn't see anything of the sort, at least not in the sea of heads on top of the sea of smells, and using Analysis would be one way to quickly overwhelm himself.

This was getting ridiculous. The smell and the sound of everyone was creating a pounding ache in his head, and without thinking, Izuku pushed through the crowd to slip into a hall at random. It had to be one of the main hallways, given that it wasn't quite as narrow as the ones surrounding it. Something at least _smelled _like outside, unlike the multitude of betas and alphas shouting their scents loud enough to give one a migraine.

He worked his way to the end of the hallway, wishing for his bracer that at least held his mask so it wouldn't be quite as overwhelming. Instead, he held his arm over his mouth and nose, squinting as he approached a larger door towards the end of the hallway. Thankfully, the door wasn't locked, and when he pushed it open - _God, yes_ \- natural light streamed in.

Poking his head out, he peered out, holding a hand up to his eyes to shield them from the sun. As he adjusted to the blinding white, he took several deep breaths to clear his senses, using the fresh air like a palette cleanser. He could smell pollen and wildflowers and unfamiliar herbs he couldn't place, but it was at least like olfactory silence. A din or a hum instead of an uproar.

When his vision cleared, he could tell right away, to his delight, that this looked like a medicinal garden. He recognized several plants - garlic, tansy, arnica. Mint, from afar. Some he couldn't recognize, but as he drew closer, their scents were similar to that of herbs he had worked with. There was a broad expanse of what smelled similar to feverfew, but the petals looked too dark. Pain was probably a problem, what with the Bakugou tendency to want to rush into a battle and their utter reluctance to back down. Stocks of an herb like that were probably used often, even with their hesitance to show any pain to their peers.

He slipped through the door, a hand on the back to push it closed so he could slide through as quietly as possible. The door wasn't silent, like the doors on Katsuki's hallway, so he had to ease it closed to negate the shriek of the hinges.

There was so much noise in the palace, he doubted he could really be heard, but the silence on the other side of the door was almost as loud as the noise inside.

When the door closed, cutting the noise clean out, Izuku slumped against it, his face turned rapturously up to the sun in relief. Twenty minutes in the castle and already he felt incredibly overwhelmed, he thought to himself while pushing a breath through his puffed out cheeks. He didn't even have a plan to find Shou, and he certainly didn't have a contingency plan for when he was inevitably found out and brought back to Katsuki's room. Or.. whatever they did with allegedly bonded pairs.

_Probably __some bloodletting ritual. Ugh._ Izuku pushed off the door to step onto the winding path that led into the garden, taking in another few breaths to keep himself calm. Significant emotion would seep into his scent, would alert Katsuki if he was in range, would panic Shou if he's awake. Besides, there was no point in panicking when reasonably, he knew Katsuki wouldn't hurt him. Their culture couldn't stand to hurt something so defenseless.

He took yet another deep breath, stepping to the threshold of the garden and toeing at the gravel absently.

The garden was terraced, Izuku realized suddenly when he could tear his eyes from the plants. There was a few feet of empty space, dusty brown gravel cleaning up the edge of the garden, and then a drop off.

Not particularly safe if someone wasn't aware of it, but he guessed Bakugous thought that if you weren't aware enough as happened to get injured, that was your own fault. His own people thought something of the same, but not when it kept to architecture. Maybe he should be thanking his lucky stars there was railing on the balcony.

Izuku, taking slow, soft steps around the outer edge of the garden, made his way to the edge to sit on the retaining wall. From this angle, he could see the stone staircase that wrapped around the far edge of the retaining wall, and that the retaining wall was definitely a _wall_. The terraces were at least fifteen feet in height, three in all, making it at least a forty-five foot drop to the bottom of the hill the castle was built into. There were stairs on alternating sides, and the same general structure for each one.

They were similarly structured to the castle in that they had a similar wheel-like design; a central middle area with four main pathways and then several smaller paths leading to smaller patches of herbs. On the bottom-most terrace were a few benches under what looked like one huge tree, but was actually several trees whose trunks gnarled and twisted together to form one.

Closer to the bottom was the path they walked up to get into the castle, and even from that vantage was there a height advantage to look at the city center. Izuku hopped down from the retaining wall, landing on the balls of his feet and then redistributing the weight back down to the rest of his feet, and then followed suit on the middle garden to get to the bottom of the gardens. Looking back, he could see that there was a _door_ leading into the wall of the middle terrace and the bottom terrace, and it immediately gave the feeling of his back being exposed. Without Shou to watch his back, or him to watch Shou's, he was beginning to feel overexposed and vulnerable.

Once he had reached the benches, which were ornate and iron wrought, he rested a hand on the warm back of one to squint out to the path leading up to the castle, and kept his back to the tree so no passersby coming from the garden would see him. From there, he could see into the city, and if he squinted he could make out the details a bit better, especially those of the people climbing the winding road up to what looked to the more upscale part of town.

The population here was dominated by alphas and betas, Izuku knew that as well as anybody. But he did pick out a few here and there, and if it weren't for the dress, Izuku could clock them just by the way they looked.

Of course, omegas had a certain look outside of his territory. Soft looking, a little plump. Broad hips, soft skin, dainty hands. Often, they looked either borderline airy or out of their mind with fear, usually with or without their alpha, respectively.

But, even from a ways away, it struck him how.. well taken care of the omegas looked. He had only seen two or three in the five minutes he had been looking, but those he did looked like the epitome of health. Their skin _glowed,_ their hair shone, they carried themselves in a way that just exuded serenity. A hand was wrapped around the arm of their alpha, the alpha standing tall and proud and leading by a few inches but also looking back and down every few moments to make sure all was well.

A tall woman with dark purple hair even turned, reaching behind her to nip her omega's cheek between her two fingers with a teasing, indulgent smile down at her. Her painted black lips were moving, an impish grin pulling to reveal her fangs, and the omega flushed to her silky brown roots. Immediately, she pouted, removing her hand from under the alpha's arm to take her hand in both of her own.

The alpha's brows raised, but the omega paid her no mind, leaning to pull her back in the other direction. The taller woman resisted for a second but relented, allowing her to pull her along with a ruffle to her hair that was corrected within a few paces. Just a few matronly swipes of her hand down her hair, but it had Izuku frowning at it disapprovingly.

No, the gesture wasn't malicious. Not at all. But that thoughtless, gentle smoothing rubbed Izuku in the wrong way. It was gestures like those that reminded omegas where the power in the relationship was; who was being taken care of and who was doing the caring-

_Izuku?! _

Izuku cursed as the thought, terrified and borderline paranoid broke into his thoughtspace. It was like a door being kicked open, opening a positive pressure system for all his worry to fill in the room.

_Izuku, where are you?_

This time it was even more urgent, a question that pried into his mind. It wasn't just a question, it was an order for information, and one that Katsuki would execute himself if need be. He could feel the hot probe of Katsuki's thoughts trying to dig into his awareness, and in his panic, he tried to throw up a block. Just a simple block, made up with imagery and his own willpower - only to have it broken in half. He could easily visualize the careless swipe of his hand knocking it over like a toddler kicks over their blocks in a tantrum, and that hand sunk its fingers into his mind.

He closed his eyes on impulse, his teeth gritting together angrily. _I'm _fine, he snapped back, trying to throw a barb in Katsuki's direction, probably to no avail. What was it about him that gave him the right to knock down everything he had learned and trained after? He wasn't a child!

_I gave you one instruction, Izuku! _Katsuki's voice was more angry now, the concern draining out of his voice to give rise to frustration. There was an almost visible effort coming from his side of their link to calm down, and Izuku could almost see the snarl on his face and the furrow of his brow as he shut his eyes to take slow breaths. _One! It's not safe for you to be wandering around here!_

Don't give him visual information, Izuku reasoned despite the sour, furious scent arising from his own glands. He was more than sure he knew he was outside, but the less sensory imagery the better. In fact, Izuku mused, removing his hands from the bench to rest them at his sides, then began shifting his weight from foot to foot, his feet rustling the grass to make it sound like he was moving.

He knew nothing would come of it. Nothing at all, and certainly nothing positive from putting it off.

But the anger heating up the opposite side of the bond was a somewhat satisfying complement to his own.

_It's just outside,_ Izuku shot back, feeling a smile pull at his lips. _Trees and plants aren't the most dangerous enemies. Omegas can handle sunlight, you know!_

Something in that gave Katsuki pause, enough to broaden Izuku's smile more. It was short lived, since the next thing he followed it up with was _That doesn't make it any less dangerous for you to just be out fucking around the palace grounds. Do you know how many people would look at you like you're their next damn meal?_

Izuku halted altogether. _So you know it's dangerous for omegas here?_

_Potentially__, for those who don't have a fuckin' protector. Anyone here would love a chance at an unmated omega, __especially __if they don't know we're together._

His mouth fell open, which he was sure paired well with his closed eyes and clenched fists. _Together? _He spat, _We're not together, Katsuki. I don't know what you think this is, but it's a complete farce._

Katsuki scoffed right back. _Even Midoriyas can acknowledge that total thought-lock exists. You know what __it was originally called__?_

_I know what __it was called__! _Izuku snapped, unsettled. _But that's achievable by other means. We disproved that myth a long time ago!_

It was then the door, a scant few hundred feet away, burst open. Izuku turned in surprise, eyes opening so he could see a very material, very angry Katsuki stomping across the garden. For a second, he had to blink in surprise - how the hell had he guessed his location so quickly? - but Katsuki was still fast approaching, and Izuku quickly skipped to be exactly opposite to his position in the garden.

When he stared him down, scowling, and tried to move one direction to get closer to him, Izuku moved the opposite. And when he tried the other direction, Izuku mirrored it the same way.

Katsuki shot an exasperated look in his direction. "We're not doing this shit."

Izuku nodded in agreement. "It looks like you are."

The exact same look Izuku could picture in his mind's eye returned, the alpha having to take a moment to reign himself in. "It's your bullshit. But now your bullshit is my bullshit, and is now designated _our _bullshit."

Izuku snorted in disagreement, only for Katsuki to mutter "Oh for the love of _fuck_," and start marching his way straight through the garden. He still took the time to slip through the tiny paths of gravel marking patches for each particular plant, but Izuku was moving along the perimeter to put him in a similar position once he reached the centermost part of the garden. It halved the space between them, but it did Katsuki no good.

Surprisingly, Katsuki opted to open his mouth. "You want to know about Half'n Half, right?"

His head snapped towards him immediately, his eyes narrowing. "What did you do to Shouto?"

Katsuki's brows lifted, and he jerked his chin off to the side irritably. "Nothing. He's with one of our healers right now. You know the wound on his leg got infected, and they're working on drawing it out."

No, he didn't know that, because the second they arrived back at the palace he was sent to Katsuki's room. Izuku frowned, opening his mouth to explain exactly that, but Katsuki cut him off. "Look. If you just - if you come with me, I can tell you about it, okay?"

He was inching closer, bit by bit, and Izuku took a moment to probe their bond himself. Yes, he was irritated, and more than a little exhausted, but buried very deliberately beneath that was genuine anxiety.

Well, not for Shou. And certainly not for him, Izuku reasoned bitterly.

He exhaled sharply through his nose as Katsuki just continued forward with those tiny steps of his, and Izuku shook his head. "I'm not interested in staying here, Katsuki." He stated a lot more boldly than he felt. "I'd rather you try me as a war criminal or have me punished as a deserter."

Katsuki looked genuinely stricken by the idea, and what started as a little back and forth shake of his head became a sharp _No._ "I can't do that! I could never, you're _my _omega." He insisted, reaching out despite Izuku's quick step backwards. "I'm supposed to be your protector, not your prosecutor-"

"Don't touch me," Izuku snarled back, a hand raised to swat Katsuki's hand into the air-

"Hey!" Came a sharp, feminine voice from the door Katsuki had used mere minutes before. A woman of average height but more than enough presence to carry herself several feet taller slammed the door shut, but awkwardly it opened again, allowing two guards to slip out.

With a bolt of dread, Izuku instantly recognized Queen Bakugou Mitsuki the second the sun hit her bleach white hair. Even from afar, he could see that Katsuki was every inch her heir, especially as he turned his head to growl at his mother angrily.

"_What_? What do you want?" Katsuki snapped, and Izuku would almost describe the look on his face as a pout.

"To see what all the damn racket was about! You left in such a hurry like the palace was about to go up in fl-" Mitsuki's eyes suddenly rested on Izuku, and her mouth formed a little understanding o. "Oh. He's the one you brought back?"

"Ye-"

"The poor thing is terrified!" Mitsuki exclaimed, adjusting her bold red cloak around her shoulders as she quickly waltzed through the garden. Katsuki's growl hadn't stopped for a second, and his possessive scent began to rise into the air.

"Oh, put that shit away, Katsuki. You'll scare him away if your personality doesn't do it first." She gave him a dismissive smack upside the head as she brushed past him. Before Izuku could get a word in, Mitsuki's own pheromones were beginning to cloud the open air too, easily more powerful than Katsuki's petulant scent.

Izuku smacked a hand over his mouth and nose the second her recognized the alpha-omega pheromones. Mitsuki's scent was that of hot molasses, syrup and warmth, and Izuku was backing his way into the outer pathway of the garden to try and escape it. But her scent was more potent than Katsuki's, even when he was pumping out the same one, and her eyes, now locked on his own, were soft and kind. The odd, sharp and feral look she and her son shared fell away, and she held her hands open and at her sides.

"It's alright," she said softly, coaxing and quiet. Izuku pinched his mouth shut and held his breath, forcing his legs to keep carrying him backwards. "You don't need to do that, Izuku. I'm not going to hurt you."

"We've been through that shit," Katsuki muttered in the background drably, and Mitsuki turned a glare to him before redoubling her efforts.

The scent was _powerful__,_ Izuku able to taste it filling his tongue without breathing in or uncovering his mouth. He tried to focus anywhere but the two alphas, but as Mitsuki came forward, he could almost feel the physical force of her scent pushing in between his fingers.

"You're alright," Mitsuki continued soothingly, her hands coming up again to show him she didn't have any weapon in her hand. Izuku wanted to scoff given the dagger tied to her thigh, but that would waste his air.

"You're safe. You're with alphas that can protect you."

Izuku felt his lungs beginning to burn, his eyes beginning to water. He knew the predated feeling that had been gnawing on him ever since he had lost Shou was uniquely omegan, and it didn't represent reality. But it did make him want something to hold on to, some semblance of safety-

When did Mitsuki get so close? Izuku had glanced one way to distract himself from the urge to gulp and swallow, black shadows beginning to taunt the edges of what he could see, and Mitsuki was suddenly mere feet from him.

The Queen tilted her head, and her hand came out slowly, her hand gently resting on his bandaged wrist. She tutted softly, shaking her head. "Oh, you poor thing. Did you get hurt, too? We can get that looked at, dear, I promise."

She must have caught his wide eyed look, because she merely smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners. "Really. We have the best healers in the land, too. She would be happy to see you, Izuku. Wouldn't you want to see her? Have a nice cup of warm tea, and have some food in your belly?"

She tugged gently at his hands, and Izuku found that trying to fight the featherlight touches on his hands was like trying to jerk awake from a dream. He let her open his hand to let it fall away from his mouth, and let her urge his fingers away from his nose, and when he looked at her for more, her hands went in his to squeeze. "Breathe for me, Izuku, it's alright."

And Izuku did, whistling in a wheezing, long breath that burned down his throat. He coughed, bending forward a little, but the next breaths were warm, easing the ache in his lungs. The tasted like syrup and honey, and Izuku began to feel like he was floating up, higher with every pull of air in.

"That's it, dear. You're okay. Just breathe," Mitsuki encouraged him, her hands skimming their way up from his arms all the way to his cheeks to smile softly down at him as if he were her only son. And suddenly, Izuku was struck with the urge to smile too, and he felt the corners of his lips turn up as she skimmed her thumbs over his cheekbones, only to pull him in her arms for a hug.

Izuku felt warm. He felt like the sun was sitting in his stomach, and he closed his eyes and pressed his nose into the space just underneath her shoulder to breathe in slowly.

He felt safe.

And as Mitsuki drew her fingers through his hair, quiet and loving, he could just hear her say to Katsuki: "Try not to fuck it up this time."


	4. Chapter 4

"No!" Izuku snapped, his crossed arms pulling the silky, soft robe taut around him. He had a feeling his temper would top out, as it had more than usual nowadays, had he not had the warm fabric pulled around his shoulders. His omega was tempted to yank the hood over his head to help block Katsuki out more, but he dismissed its complaints. It was mortifying enough that he was wearing the thing in the first place!

Katsuki's jaw was locking and unlocking, a tic that Izuku was sure had to do with trying to keep that hair trigger temper of his in check, and he could practically see the chains he was wrapping around his own alpha to keep it back.

"Izuku-" He tried again, only to be cut off by the sharp line Izuku's hand took through the air across his own torso, cutting him off.

"I'm not sleeping there. You can forget it, Katsuki!" He insisted, jabbing the hand towards the bed as if it had killed one the pet dogs he had at home. At least the finger he broke to throw Katsuki off almost a week ago had been seen to, and was now wrapped harmlessly and splinted. Izuku, stubborn as he was, used it to point accusingly at the soft surface with an uncompromising purse of his lips.

It wasn't the first fight in the prince's cool, dim chambers. Izuku had been inclined to ask why it was so _drafty,_ but in between fights and Mitsuki arriving to "steady" him, as she called it, he hadn't had the time.

As Izuku puffed, bent slightly at the waist to glare up at Katsuki in a posture that was unmistakably alphan, Katsuki's own challenging growl started up in his chest. He had borne the brunt of the rest of the castle's prying eyes wondering what it was that was so offensive that transpired in his chambers, and this marked the umpteenth time the Izuku had added fodder to the gossip mill.

"We need," Katsuki tried, his voice a frayed wire of control, "to sleep."

Izuku was sure he needed sleep. In the past few days he had spent in the Bakugou palace, each day he had woken up in his arms, clasped to his chest while they slept without moving or making a sound the entire time.

Izuku's sedation, of course, the result of heavy Mitsuki interference, but the heavy lock of his arms around his waist, the press of his nose into his neck, and the minimum of six tries it took to furiously shake him awake were all indications of a man coming to bed exhausted.

Half the time he wasn't sure what made him come to best exhausted.

He was sure similar arguments had happened, but piecing his foggy memory together was a losing battle. He knew he had made several more attempts at escaping to find Shou, but even with instinctive omegan speed and his own quirk, something had caught him_._ Ribbons wrapped around his wrists and waist and dragged him back in with little effort.

Following that, quirk suppressing bracers had been slapped on his wrists with a gentle grin from the Queen and an _Omegas __really __don't need such stress in their lives. Isn't that better?_

Izuku called them bracers, but they didn't cover his glands like proper bracers did. They fit over his hand to attach at his upper wrist and spread like a glove over the back of his hand to end at his knuckles. He didn't recognize the the material, because instead of the sharp scent of lucinium his own bracers carried, these smelled of.. something sharp and citrusy. Orange and something else, but charged.

He tried to rip them off when he came to hours later, but they stayed stuck on like a second skin. It was like trying to peel off a scab, except without any pain, and no matter how much he pulled, the leather wouldn't come off regardless of what he used. Teeth, claws… at one point he even tried stepping on a loose part of the leather to yank his arm up. Nothing happened except his arm very nearly being pulled out of socket, and it rubbed on his irritated, sensitive nerves exactly the wrong way.

Anger, a clear symptom of insecure omegan attachment, was becoming more and more prevalent. His temper was almost as excitable as Katsuki's, and paired with the overwhelming amount of scents and sounds that burst out from the palace, Izuku found himself caught between his exhaustion and his increasingly anxious omega.

Everyone in the palace, including Izuku, knew the solution to his increasing paranoia and worry. It had been the subject of bets and gambling as to when he would give in to it, from what he had heard while he and Katsuki were making rounds around the palace, and if he were being honest, he knew how profoundly it affected Katsuki. Inadequacy panged his side of their connection every time Izuku denied him a touch or gave him a look that was anything less than neutral, and if it were just a pure feeling of not being good enough, Izuku might have been able to turn a blind eye.

He didn't believe in this link in the first place! He was sure Bakugous had some sort of bonding magic that tricked omegas into staying.

But God, guilt niggled the back of his mind every time. The insecurity attached to their relationship wasn't deep in that Katsuki wanted to duck his head every time Izuku barked at him for something as simple as resting a hand on the small of his back to guide him through a crowd, just because it was in public. Well - it was, but it hit him to the core of his identity differently.

Izuku shook himself and told himself with more acid than he really felt that he didn't care for any alpha's upset about their inability to control him.

"You're right," Izuku said, because he knew that Katsuki liked his schedule. "We do need to sleep. So just- just give me the covers I had last time, and we can sleep."

"The linens you stole so you could take a nap on the floor?" Katsuki repeated, his brows furrowing as his eyes grew wide. It made his expression borderline comical, almost like an exaggerated drawing, but Izuku knew he had made a mistake when those red irises twitched to the little upturn of his lips. "So you could sleep on the _stone floor_\- what kind of alpha do you think I am?"

"Not mine," Izuku quipped before he could stop himself.

Katsuki's brows lifted. Izuku knew what was coming - he had gotten better at tracking Katsuki's reactions to things in the past few days, and the bolt of surprise and something like despair traveled straight from his stomach to his throat to sting his eyes. Katsuki, he had learned, had become something of an expert at converting unpleasant emotions - and even positive ones - into anger. That loss pricking at his eyes turned to indignation, which only needed a few tweaks to turn itself into full blown fury.

He turned up his nose pridefully, and Izuku cheeks burned from the intensity of his glare. Something in the displeased seam of his lips made him want to take the comment back, but Katsuki opened his mouth before he could backtrack.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" He demanded, "There something wrong with me? I don't look like I can provide for you?"

"That has nothing to-"

"D'you think I can't keep you safe? Or fed and warm, or give you a nest full of brats?"

Izuku had little doubt in his mind that Katsuki _could_ do all of those things. His instincts were always foaming at the mouth to constantly inform him that Katsuki was the shining example of an alpha, and an excellent candidate for a mate. They took one look at his towering frame and defined musculature and spicy scent and said this was an alpha more than capable of providing robust, healthy young and a good lifestyle to boot.

"So why-" Katsuki, picking up on his thoughts whenever it happened to convenience him, pressed, "why-"

"I don't know you!" Izuku couldn't help but bare his teeth, his own growl clicking through his words. "I don't know you, and I don't want to know you! Why would I want to know someone who solves things by just- making it so I can't think!"

Katsuki blinked, momentarily taken out of his anger. "It's my job to keep you cal-"

"I don't want to be calm!" Frustration ached in his tone, and he slapped a palm into his chest. "I want to be able to think. I want to be listened to instead of be looked at like I can't handle cutting my meat!"

Katsuki took a moment to process that information, but the outcome was still the same."You're an omega," He reasoned, his arms falling so he could face his palms down and spread his fingers out in a poor attempt at placating him. "And I know you lot are like damn rabbits, so I just-"

Izuku wouldn't let him finish again. "How many times have you used my name?" He asked, words striking out like a whip at Katsuki. "It's been a week. How many times?"

The alpha pinched the bridge of his nose, then rolled his eyes up towards the ceiling. Izuku knew he was tiring out fast, and bit back his own sense of victory. "I don't know, Izuku."

"Eleven. That makes eleven."

Katsuki's bewildered look had Izuku making yet another grating noise of irritation, and he simply gripped the topmost blanket on the bed to rip it off without ceremony. The pillows fell with two little soft plops on the floor, and Izuku paid no mind at the wordless exclamation while depositing the heavy comforter on the floor.

"See? Just fine. Now all I need is-" Izuku pulled off the top sheet to add to the nest, then grabbed one of the pillows to throw back on the bed.

"There! Now I can make a nest out of this." He nodded decisively, smiling despite the sour scent pouring off of him. "And we can sleep! Katsuki, I appreciate your willingness to work with me. How befitting of an alpha."

The heap of blankets looked sad and lumpy when he dismissed Katsuki's flabbergasted look and turned to get to work, and it went without saying whatever he managed to make would be absolutely terrible given how cold the room was.

Dejected, Izuku looked over his materials. The comforter would make adequate padding to put off the fact that the surface was unyielding stone, and he was hoping to arrange the pillow.. underneath, maybe, with the comforter just so.

He toed the blanket over with a slippered foot, really just to see which parts were least saturated with Katsuki's scent. The top side obviously had less of it, but the blanket still held the cool, quiet smell of the room, and for some reason that was almost equally undesirable.

"Izuku."

_Twelve._ "Yes?" He replied, keeping his tone even as he pulled the sheet out more to see how much it stretched.

"_Izuku._"

That voice was behind him now, and Izuku kept his back turned in a silent dare. "I'm listening, Katsuki."

Not sufficiently, Izuku noted as Katsuki's hand closed around his wrist, but his grip wasn't its usual tight vice. Enough to not register as a threat, but the touch still set off alarm prickling down his arms.

Izuku spun around, twisting his wrist in his grip with his opposite palm held low to strike up his chest. Before it could land, Katsuki caught his other wrist to hold between them, his fingers avoiding his gland to grip more of his hand.

Electricity crackled between them once again, Katsuki holding both of his hands between them as Izuku opened his mouth in surprise. He couldn't smell an attempt at placation, and it was just Katsuki's eyes glaring down at him instead of the heady weight of caramel and warmth around him. In fact, he could smell frustration, hot and smokey from his throat, and could feel the nervous core of his thoughts.

Katsuki wanted pause. He didn't want a fight, and he was damn tired.

His expression said that, the steady grind of his teeth said that. Izuku wanted to push forward, throw a knee into his stomach and push his palm forward into his cheek into his face hit the wall.

But Katsuki opened his mouth, and out came "The bed. What's wrong with it?"

His omega blinked, head cocked in interest, and Izuku was surprised into blurting the truth instead of stubbornly holding his tongue. "It looks nothing like a proper nest, and feels nothing like one too," he blurted. Of course, that ignored that Katsuki occupied the bed, but the pressure on his wrists lessened somewhat on that admission alone.

"You were a soldier, though." He stated, his mouth twisted in confusion. "What's wrong with it not looking like a nest?"

"_Am._" Izuku corrected him caustically despite his omega's chastising. "It's your home, why doesn't it look like it?"

Katsuki's eyes immediately went anywhere but his face, and squinting in the dim light, Izuku could see just a few shades of pink beginning to color his cheeks. "The fuck's it matter what my room looks like?" He muttered, and then he just added, " 'sides, it's not my job to make it look like that."

His teeth clicked shut. Traditionally, omegas were the ones that kept house. They were the ones that were delegated with making a house _home. _His omega positively crowed at the opportunity to nest in that wretched bed of Katsuki's and turn the formal, sterile room into a place that could feel like a safe place.

And then he kicked it down.

Despite its howling, he pushed it away, and his wrist came away fairly easily when he took a step back. "It's not my job, either."

The nest needed to be made, either way, even if the back of his neck stung with guilt. _To what end?_ Izuku snapped at himself, _The arrangement was temporary_.

When the nest was finally arranged to his satisfaction, a process completed with Katsuki stepping back to watch him unblinkingly, Izuku toed it a few more times to fluff the corners, and then climbed in.

Not at all as comfortable as the plush mattress, but it sated him somewhat to be in the definite, soft confines of a nest. He shifted a few times, arranging himself so his body was at least mostly on the pillow, and then drew the comforter's edges towards him.

It was quiet.

And then there was a foot in his nest.

Izuku's eyes snapped open, his body stiffening on instinct to attack. "Katsuki-"

"Izuku."

He wanted to draw his hood and the comforter over his head and groan at the pure exhaustion in his voice. "Just go to _bed._"

Katsuki hesitated, if only because he knew entering an omega's nest unsolicited was a death sentence.

But he knew Izuku wouldn't attack again, and unfortunately, he knew Izuku knew that too.

"I can't." He said, his voice an unbearable quiet. He paused long enough for Izuku to almost open his mouth with several thoughts on how he was fully capable of laying on his own bed, but he stopped when Katsuki completed his thoughts with a "..Leave you alone down there. It'll get cold."

The agitated, dull click-click-click of Izuku's claws, over the comforter but on the stone, were the only sounds in the room as he mulled over what he was supposed to do. No doubt he would be more unbearable the next morning if he didn't allow this much, and no doubt it would infuriate him to the point of his mother being needed.

That, and as the seconds ticked by, marked by his nails, Katsuki let out a soft, pathetic noise. An alphan apologetic whine, a nonverbal _please_, and it made his omega want to wail a complementary pitch.

Izuku smothered his face into a mostly untainted part of the comforter. "Just get in."

* * *

In the morning - or what Izuku assumed it was, since Katsuki didn't have a window in his room - he woke to a familiar scene.

Facing the same wall he always did, facing away from Katsuki, but as he always was, he was utterly, deliciously warm. Warm enough to want to turn his face away and into the heat's source, to cling to it and the remnants of his sleep and hopefully catch another few minutes of blissful rest.

His body was curled, his knees bent and legs tangled together with another. An arm was wrapped around his waist, and a hand rested on his chest, close enough to feel every heartbeat. Absently, Izuku noted the breath stirring against the back of his neck and the contentment, smelling like a fireplace and cinnamon, swirling around him like a second embrace. For a moment, his lips turned upwards.

He felt safe.

In the early morning, when they were both dozing and it couldn't be fully attributed to conscious thought, Izuku often heard the soft rumblings of Katsuki's rough purr. It came from deep within his chest, a slow oscillation timed by his slow breathing. It filled Izuku's ears in a pitch that almost sent him right back to sleep and made him want to slide down so his face was flush with his belly and he was surrounded by the sound.

The second he pictured what it would be like to have a hand resting on the back of his head as he rested there was the moment cold reality began pouring in.

Izuku blinked his eyes open to study the wall, now a little closer than usual since they were on the floor. His body felt a little sore, his right arm felt completely numb, and it wouldn't surprise him if his hip complained the whole day.

But he still felt comfortable. He felt no urge to leave his makeshift nest or the circle of Katsuki's arms, not with him purring against his back and making it feel like home.

_No._

Izuku fisted a hand into the blanket. No. Instincts presented one reality, facts presented another. He didn't feel this way; it was just his omega speaking, and he was more than ready to start the day.

It's not as if the past week had been very stimulating, but at least sometimes it was kind of funny. While he was waiting on Queen Mitsuki to hear he and Shou's case, they had relegated him to following Katsuki around as he did whatever it was princes do in this kingdom. The entire thing was a sham, but short of being alone in the garden, watching Katsuki deal with his people was his favorite thing to do.

Katsuki handled minor conflicts like small property disputes, theft of lesser valued goods, and other petty crimes.

He had an inherent mistrust for his people, and he didn't trust them to do what was necessary most of the time. He thought they were lazy and lacked integrity, and the disdainful way he dealt with them was awful.

Izuku knew he should be more horrified with the way Katsuki looked at his people, and the way he settled disputes, but for now, he figured he could make an exception when the people seemed to very well be what Katsuki made them out to be. He told them that they acting like fucking infants and didn't deserve the meager land they owned, and then turned his regal gaze to another petitioner to inform them that he'd raze their little shop before allowing someone of as poor credit as their own a loan.

He was cruel, but Izuku had noticed that sometimes he had to stop himself from laughing outright. Katsuki had a way of looking over his shoulder when he had to purse his lips to keep a snort from bursting through, and his eyes always gleamed with the beginnings of a smile pulling at his lips. Izuku was always quick to look away, but he knew Katsuki's thoughts lingered on those few zingers.

Katsuki also frequented war council meetings, and since he was considered a liability, Izuku was left to his own devices with a guard during those times.

Whoever had the misfortune of guarding him during that time was left with a "touch him and you will _die_," which usually meant he was largely left alone. Izuku had taken to slowly exploring the palace, poking through the different spokes on the wheel with what he considered a sort of total autonomy that met its limit with a pointed but timid cough from a guard if he went too far. None of the guards went so far as touching him, at least.

Well.

Save for one.

He put an end to it by quickly gripping the offender's hand and elbow and throwing him neatly over his shoulder, his body making a loud, hollow thudding noise as he crashed down on the floor. It was satisfying, watching the total shock on the beta's face once he had opened his eyes to see who on Earth had done that, but that was before his hands were bound behind his back and Katsuki was called to sedate him.

Katsuki, at least, had looked a little amused, but it was buried under his frustration. "Touch him and you will die" took on a new meaning after that, and Izuku assumed no beta or alpha wanted the humiliation of knowing an omega put them on their back.

The guards typically kept a ten foot distance after that incident, but Izuku, his usual desire to cooperate run desert-dry, pushed the limits every time. No one wanted to try and subdue _this_ fighty omega, even if Izuku burned for a fight even without his quirks.

Speaking of fighting..

Inko used to say the first battle of the day was getting Izuku's sleepyhead out of bed. She'd have to use some combination of singing, shaking, petting, coaxing, and threatening to get him out of whatever dreamland he was in, and half the time he'd wake up slumped against the table from where she had just given in and had someone carry him into the kitchen. She thought it was hilarious that when he hit fourteen and started climbing the ranks, people would have to shake him awake so he could lead drills.

Not so much when he turned seventeen and she was brewing together a special concoction of chamomile and a few other secret ingredients to help him sleep. Or when it got bad enough that she passed the recipe to Shou to help him when they were traveling.

He decided not to think about how he slipped into sleep easily this past week, and instead rested his hand on the broad, warm hand held fast to his chest and eased it off. He lifted Katsuki's arm up and off, slowly moving it back so it could curl neutrally against his own chest and he could slip out without much protest. But halfway through the arc over his side, Katsuki's arm gained a will of its own, snaking back around him to draw him back close.

Izuku froze, barely daring to breathe.

Katsuki's nose hit the nape of his neck, and he rubbed his forehead against the fluffy curls with a long, warm sigh against his skin.

_A little longer_, came the thought, hot and syrupy and persuasive. Katsuki wasn't awake, at least not entirely, because in his delirium he curled them together even tighter, shifting his face to the side of his neck.

Nausea rose up in his stomach, misfiring with the soft feelings his omega was trying to convince him were true and safe.

_This isn't fair, _Izuku sent back, resting his head back down as he chewed the corner of his lips.

* * *

Hours later, after an argument Izuku started because he couldn't stand the peace quieting his pacing omega, and after it was interrupted by a timid knocking on the door, Izuku found himself standing at full height, his posture drawn up tight and taut in the throne room. He locked his arms behind him tipped his chin up, and settled back into the old posture of parade rest like it were an old, comfortable sweater.

The effect was surely lost under the evergreen cloak he wore, but Mitsuki's interested gaze traveled from Katsuki's slouched posture and the sullen cross of his arms to the very _un_omegan stance Izuku carried himself in without comment. She crossed her legs, her ankle resting on her knee as her elbow came down on the vibrant gold of her throne.

To her left sat Masaru, her consort. Izuku had heard her lovingly refer to him as her mate and her omega, never as her husband. But..

He looked happy. He settled in his slightly less grand throne with his knees pressed together under his dark maroon cloak and a soft smile on his face, and when he extended his hand, Mitsuki immediately took it in her own to hold with great care. Izuku, somewhat transfixed, watched as her fingers pinched to massage at each knuckle. Her fingers traveled up each finger, doting care being given to each knuckle, and the look he turned to her was one of utter devotion.

Izuku wanted to balk. That kind of intimacy was reserved for privacy, and Masaru looked like he'd be content to duck his head and rest it right on Mitsuki's chest.

But the moment ended when Mitsuki looked away, her smile still on her lips. Above her, the sun had risen just enough to be seen through the red stained glass above her throne, and it cast cherry beams of light on her cheeks.

"I sent the Todorokis along." She said, her steady, calm voice projecting through the room. "It was a good visit, you know. Since our alliance, we've come to terms on a lot of things."

_Mom was right all along, _Izuku realized suddenly, cold surprise slipping down his chest to his stomach. She had suspected that they had been working together in a mutual bid for the Midoriya territory for the last few years, but a formal alliance was never declared.

Katsuki glanced down at him, a single brow raised in interest, and Izuku sucked his cheeks into his teeth to prevent himself from snapping them at him.

"That Shouto boy," Mitsuki added conversationally, and Izuku almost started. "He was your counterpart, right?"

Izuku bit on his lip, considering as a bolt of anxiety filled his chest. What interest did Mitsuki have with Shou?

The Queen cocked her head to the right a few seconds into Izuku's reluctant silence, looking him over. "Oh, don't look so worried, dear! I'm fully aware of how you Midoriyas work, the pairs and all. We used to be allies a long time ago, too."

To his left, Katsuki clicked his tongue, tossing his head back.

Again, Izuku's cheeks met his teeth. "I know. The alliance dissolved over fifteen years ago, I didn't know if-"

"I was aware?" Mitsuki's eyes gleamed with amusement as she petted Masaru's hand. "Of course I was. It's an interesting tidbit, don't you think?"

Before Izuku could think to counter, Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Hag, stop playing with your food and just fucking eat it. What do you want? We got shit to do."

The arch of Mitsuki's brow said no, they most certainly did not.

Izuku wanted to bury his face in his hands.

"Well…" Mitsuki's voice was sly, the corners of her painted red lips beginning to turn upwards in a manner that put no one at ease. "Have you been keeping him updated on Shouto's status? He's up and walking around, right?"

Before he could stop it, relief saturated his side of their bond. Katsuki's head snapped in Izuku's direction just to catch the slow relaxation in his mind, like a thorn that had been nagging the sole of his foot had just been removed.

The Queen took in every bit of the small interaction: Izuku's widening eyes but otherwise unchanging expression and posture, the whiplike motion of Katsuki's head in the omega's direction, and the twitch of Izuku's lips to purse in a small flinch.

And then, the jut of Izuku's jaw to the side, the glare that scorched its way up to meet her son's eyes. Katsuki's equally heated look, and then the conversation that must be taking place there.

"Izuku."

Both boys' heads turned immediately, the mental catfight ending like someone had thrown something between them. Mitsuki paid her son no mind as she stood, releasing Masaru's hand to pull her rich red cape out from under her, and began walking forward.

Izuku waited for the scent of syrup to fill the room with a grimace, but as she approached, it remained clear and neutral.

But still, Katsuki pushed his shoulder forward, angling a step in Mitsuki's direction to stand in front of Izuku. "Out with it, hag. The fuck do you wanna do with him?"

The shorter alpha just raised her hands, then waved them at Katsuki dismissively. "Outta my way, kid. I have a deal for him."

"Yeah, and you can make it from right there."

Izuku's tolerance for alphan posturing was growing short, and a growl of his own ripped through his chest as he took the four steps necessary to walk around Katsuki. Both alphas picked up on the acrid scent of frustration before Izuku's voice cut through the protective wall of Katsuki's body, but all he said was "I want to hear her deal."

Mitsuki turned a triumphant grin in Katsuki's direction, blocking the backhand he sent in her direction with her forearm.

"Great! Now, dear, listen to me." She clapped her hands together, "I know you know what happened between Shouto and his family. And I know you know he ran like hell because Enji is a fucking psychopath. And I know you know his safety is contingent on Enji remaining unawares."

It took no time at all for Izuku's curiosity to turn to stone and drop low in his stomach, dread filling him up like a balloon. The exasperated growl that had started high in his throat cut out, Mitsuki's eyes lighting up with delight as she scanned over the understanding in his eyes.

He felt _cold_, suddenly, like he had slipped under a frozen lake. How did Mitsuki know those things - had she spoken to Shou? Had he been interrogated and spoken under duress? He had never known Shou to break under even the worst psychological torture, and God knew they had endured it all.

"So, for that reason, my lovely, wonderful Izuku, I'd like to cut a deal with you. A three-way deal, actually, if you will." Mitsuki added, coaxing Izuku out of his horrified thoughts.

"Three-way?" Izuku breathed in turn, glancing up to Katsuki. The other alpha's expression was in no way happy, but the hostility in his expression had little to do with the deal, if Izuku had to guess.

Mitsuki tilted her head back and forth, obviously not thinking too much of it. "Well, it's between me, you, and your mother. A mutually beneficial agreement, really. Everyone wins."

His omega chose that exact moment to rear its ugly head with a sudden wail to _run_, to get the hell out of this black hole of a throne room, to tear the kingdom apart until he found Shou and hide. His legs itched with that urgent need, and it hitched his breathing and bunched up his muscles in preparation to bound off like a hare.

In response to the clearly rising fear-scent, Mitsuki merely rose a brow. "Are you alright, Izuku?"

Katsuki threw an arm between them, shouldering Izuku behind him. "He's not, because you're fuckin' _scaring_ him. Not sure what you're trying to accomplish here'n making a deal when he's scared shitless-"

"He doesn't want you to calm him down," Mitsuki replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Wouldn't you rather listen to him?"

"There's a damn differen-"

"_What_," Izuku cut in, because at some point they had to hear him. They had to, even if he wanted to gasp and wheeze because the idea of Shou going back to such a place because of him was like the two Bakugous shoving his head underwater. "What is it you want? In return for keeping Shou safe?"

Mitsuki cocked her head to look back at him, her expression soft and almost pitying. "Oh, Izuku. I want to keep him safe for you, darling, I do. But you're going to have to do something for me."

Katsuki was growling now, in an aggressive, offensive pitch. It called for an end of the conversation and the beginning of a fight, but Mitsuki didn't seem to notice. "I'm going to need you to stay here with us. Shouto can stay here too, of course, under my protection."

The proposition was dizzying enough without Izuku's panic rising beyond his control. He hadn't lost his steady hold on his anxiety like this on so long, he needed Shou-

"What's the other part of the deal? The part - the one - with my mother?" Izuku forced the words out of his mouth and into the space of the room despite the dryness of his lips and tongue. Katsuki looked behind him, ruby eyes glinting with something like concern as Izuku drew in a ragged breath.

The Queen, giving Izuku a calm, diplomatic smile, waved her hand. "Well, there's the formality of the.. well, the war going on between our two countries. Your territory has resources we need, and you know, I've come to realize that it might just be easier to obtain them by trade with an ally."

At Izuku's confused look, she added, as if he really were a child, "A close ally. One cemented through familial bonds."

The remaining air pushed from his lungs in a short gust, and Izuku had to tug a breath through his throat that was like pulling a thread through a needle. She was suggesting becoming bonded- _permanently_ bonded to Katsuki, and discarding the bond he had with Shou. Creating an alliance by marrying into the Bakugou dynasty, and providing the heirs of such a bond with a three-way alliance between the Midoriyas, the Bakugous, and the Todorokis.

It was logical. It ended the war that resulted in dreadful casualties on either side, one that strained their resources in the best of times and put them in dire straits in the worst of times. It paved the way for a prosperous future, looking at it with an objective lens.

It kept his mother and his people safe.

It kept Shou safe.

"You have to understand, Izuku.. I have to prioritize heirs for the kingdom. Heirs that can only be produced by you, my dear. You're Katsuki's, you share a soul." She smiled, and now it was half sharp teeth and half poison. "Time to start acting like it."

The noise Izuku let out wasn't civilized or human. It was the product of panic and aggression, a fatal combination in an omega, and both emotions centered on the Queen with a deadly fidelity. When he lunged for her, claws outstretched to reach for her face, he didn't even hear the snarl from Masaru or the warning snap from Katsuki.

His claws closed around air, his other arm reaching out blindly until his face and chest hit a wall of flesh. Izuku hissed and tried to barrel through it, sightless and feral, while Katsuki quickly wrapped his arms around him; one holding their chests flush while his hand gripped the back of his head to press his face into the gland at his throat. Liquid sweetness, thick and heady, began to slip into his nostrils and smooth the ragged noises coming from his throat.

Izuku's claws scrabbled in the air for purchase, looking for flesh or muscle but finding nothing as Masaru pulled his alpha back. Instead, after a few fruitless, frantic seconds, he turned them inward, sharp nails aiming to tear open the armor at Katsuki's back to sink them into his skin.

Nothing could come of it; the leather was too strong for his uncoordinated, messy strikes. Instead of trying to fend them off, Katsuki tightened his grip on Izuku, trying to still his attempts at fighting by holding him fast. He buried his nose in his hair, his own nails scratching across his scalp while holding his hips in place.

"Damn you, Katsuki!" Izuku lifted his voice in a near incomprehensible scream and equally furious thought, and was only rewarded with a wince when he tried to dig his teeth into his shoulder.

_I know, _was Katsuki's response, pushing more warmth and quiet out into the air.

_I know._


	5. Chapter 5

Prince Izuku was missing.

Which was a damn shame, Mitsuki acknowledged, taking a sip of earthy red wine. His mother would be arriving later this evening, and she would hate for her to have to see her son as he was after every failed escape.

Those wild eyes of his, so big and terrified. Pupils so small all one could see was the metallic green of his irises, mouth opened wide to bear those omega-dull teeth in a wordless, feral snarl. If he were particularly distressed, she might see a flash of electricity trying to twitch its way across him, surfacing despite the bracers around his wrists.

Poor thing.

Mitsuki's heart went out to him. It did. No doubt his omega was clawing its way into his head at every opportunity, starting at things that went bump in the night to turn footsteps into towering monsters.

No doubt he had been forced to fight and subdue the very thing that kept their species alive his entire life, too. Pushing down something so innate to his identity must have made for a cruel process.

It was inhumane, what those Midoriyas would do to omegas. Expecting them to fight like betas and alphas and telling them their instinctive needs were sinful and wrong! They put omegas into high ranking positions and expected them to cope with the high stress and violence that they simply weren't made for.

Why, poor Izuku was feeling the effects of his paranoia when separated from that Shouto boy for just a few days. She'd heard reports from the guards that while Izuku had enjoyed his alone time initially, when her useless son had to attend to some issue he couldn't be present at, he'd often be seen pacing the hall just outside the room he was in.

As her catlike eyes scanned over the herbs and color that made up the middle gardens, she found a small smile. Izuku _had_ been raised to be a tactician, after all, and he saw this as another battle. He thought strategically - as well as he could, given that his primary drive was anxiety, now - but he was searching for her political weaknesses and she was his mental weaknesses.

She would have to hold out the long game and starve him out, it seemed. Izuku's tenacity would be admirable in an a good soldier, and had he not been an omega - and her son's mate, she would have him for one of her own in a heartbeat. Though the very thought was comparable to sending Masaru out into battle, she knew, and her lip wanted to curl at the idea of his soft skin injured or marred in any way.

Izuku would break. Eventually, he would break down fully as he did that morning in the throne room, collapsing on Katsuki's shoulders with sobs that made her own alpha ache to reach out and comfort him. There were flaws in his mental armor, and it would only take time to exploit them.

* * *

When Queen Inko walked in, it was with all the precision and posture she held when leading a drill or a march. Her expression, while soft, was unreadable, and she surveyed the interior of the private dining hall as she would the terrain for a battle. Where to run, where to fight, where to hold her ground.

She wore her hair half up and half down, the top layer pulled strictly away from her face in a way that presented her as severe and regal, and yet somehow matronly. She wore a loose gown of soft green, but the leather armor protecting her upper body showed her to be wary and vigilant.

The Queen glanced around, taking inventory. Two guards on each door, of which there were two. Mitsuki and Masaru were already seated on the far end of the table that was already decorated with a multitude of foods in an appealing rainbow of color. In the center of the room hung a large chandelier, but candles were also dispersed throughout the room to cast intimate light.

Inko would think of it as cozy had the air not been thin and riddled with anxiety.

Mitsuki was already chatting with Masaru, and his eyes crinkled warmly as he watched her speak. He leaned back in his chair, the picture of contentment, but his head turned in Inko's direction instinctively as one of the guards announced her presence.

Masaru pushed his chair back to stand, his lips pulling into a smile as he bowed. To his left, Mitsuki mirrored the gesture, a hand finding its way to Masaru's back.

"Inko," Masaru said as he came up, his friendly smile the only thing warming the temperature of the room. "Welcome to our home."

Inko rested a hand on the leather armor over her stomach, bowing low and careful. "Thank you for allowing me into your home."

Masaru waved her off, positively beaming. "No, no. The pleasure is all mine. Please, sit."

Without turning to look at her own two guards, Inko obliged, pulling out a chair to sit adjacent to the two Bakugous. Across from her, the two chairs skidded across the floor, and Masaru gestured to her empty glass. "Would you like some wine?"

"Some water, if it isn't any trouble." Inko replied pleasantly, though her gaze caught on the familiar buckles and leather around Masaru's forearms. Her gaze snapped up to his throat, confirming what she already knew to be there: lucinium bracers.

As Masaru gestured a servant to fill her glass with ice water, Mitsuki gave her a red lipped smile. "A gesture of good faith. We were hoping we could.. come to terms, and thought these might help."

She pulled the hem of her high necked gown down, and Inko caught a glimpse of cracked bold red.

Well. That certainly explained the distinctive lack of alpha posturing scent cramming its way down her throat, and Inko allowed a small, mirroring smile of her own on her lips. "How considerate, I wasn't aware there were lucinium deposits in your lands."

"No," Mitsuki agreed conversationally. "But there is a small mine in Todoroki territory."

Ah. Inko's eyes rose up to meet Mitsuki's gaze, but she was cutting into her meat.

Instead, Inko tried "I see your friendship with them has.. grown deeper."

The woman _giggled._ "Something like that. They're good allies, you know." She poked the bit of chicken into her mouth, continuing, "But I wouldn't call us friends. Even if that Enji asshole wants us to be."

Inko began to say that it certainly appeared as if they were, but she was overridden by Mitsuki. "You know who I want to be friends with, though?"

"I couldn't tell you." Inko said mildly.

Mitsuki laughed, setting her fork down. "Oh, Koko, I _miss _you. Remember when we were best friends? We used to meet down in that unclaimed territory by the river and play for hours."

"Yes," Inko agreed, "And then your mother took power and started waging war on the clans around your land. You started campaigning early, if I recall correctly."

"We were uniting them for a stronger cause." Mitsuki waved her hand, "And now look at us! We're one of the biggest, most feared countries in the continent. I'd say we were pretty successful."

"You were." Ignoring the bloodshed, loss of life, and productivity, she supposed so.

"And now, I think instead of fighting some silly ideological war, it's high time we joined together!" Mitsuki grinned, displaying perfect rows of white teeth. "I have a contract drawn up, actually. We could do great things together! This war is such a hindrance when we could just do things as one unit in the first place."

"E-excuse me?"

"I know this war has been hard for your country. And I'm more than willing to send aid in rebuilding-"

"This war had nothing to do with ideology!" Inko exclaimed, fighting to keep her tone low. "Your want for more land and power has driven this-"

"Now, Koko, we're splitting hairs." Mitsuki rose her hands, her knife threaded between two fingers and her thumb. "I'm willing to set all of this behind us! Let the bloodshed end and our two countries rebuild together, _stronger._ We're stronger as one."

Inko's lips pulled back in a grimace. "Invoking the old slogan you used to coerce your neighboring clans to band together is not very.. comforting, Mitsuki."

"Then how about this." The Queen set her knife down, then spread her long fingers over the table cloth with her chin notched upwards. An alphan power stance, and Inko knew her glands would be aching the day after from their attempt at producing pheromones while pressed up against lucinium.

Instead of rising to the posturing, Inko leaned back. Her food had gone mostly untouched, a gesture she knew was somewhat rude in this kingdom, but she was sure only Masaru would be concerned. She crossed her legs, then set her hands on her lap.

Behind her, her guards shifted restlessly. Her instincts said to send comfort and calm towards them, and perhaps she would have considered it had she come from any other kingdom.

"I have your son, Inko." Mitsuki said, uncharacteristic care being put into choosing her words. "And Izuku is _my_ son's. He's Katsuki's _Fated_, being away from Katsuki compromises him."

"If that were true, it's just as much the opposite." Inko replied, calming the rising tempest of her anger. "Katsuki would be just as much Izuku's, and would need him just the same."

"So you see the position we're in." There was Mitsuki's smile again. "Both of our heirs are compromised without the other, but your boy does have an unfair advantage. That artificial alpha of his provides some protection, but he's already seeing the effects of what it is to be an unattached omega. Kind of cruel, don't you think?"

"He's holding out, I'm told." Inko replied, persistent steel in her voice. "Whatever brutish imitation he's producing of that myth is the real cruelty, here."

"Your failure to empathize with your son aside-" Inko's smile was slow and patient, and her guards shifted once more in tandem "-I wanted to place a few more things on the table. Just for you to know what's at stake, here."

Mitsuki's sharp claws played at what was assumably an imperfection in the table cloth, though Inko couldn't spot much of anything. She looked at Masaru, who was eating bits of fruit and seeming to ignore the conversation, and then Mitsuki again, whose brows were creased thoughtfully.

The silence dragged on for several moments, but Inko wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of rising to the bait. She remembered that sly, uninterested look Mitsuki would cast to the ground when Inko begged her to know what adventure they were going on that day, and it was the same one she was giving her food as she kept her silence.

"Your ward," Mitsuki said, "Todoroki Shouto?"

"His name is Shouto," Inko interrupted her to say, vitriol checked quickly on the tail end of her second son's name. "_Midoriya_ Shouto, officially, but he prefers Shouto."

"He told me that, too." That predator's smile was back. "He told me a lot of things, actually."

Ah.

Inko's expression didn't waver, but she could feel understanding hit her like the first cold wind to precede a cold front.

Alphas had a much higher resistance to scent torture, and Midoriyas as a whole had been trained to resist such things. But.. no one was infallible, even with all the cognitive training in the world.

She didn't know what Shouto had been made to believe. With pheromones and words, the power of suggestion was just a solid as fact. Shouto could believe Izuku was dead, what with that fake bond between her son and that dreadful boy of Mitsuki's. He could believe that their cause was lost, he could believe she was dead.

Inko didn't put anything below Mitsuki; she had known her to be ruthlessly efficient since they were young. Torturing a soldier for information had succeeded the tools and tricks and strategy she used when playing general in a hilly meadow full of dandelions.

"I don't think I really need to explain everything? Not really? I mean, it's kinda evident that you're pretty much fucked in every position possible. No offense to your late husband, of course, but on your end it's.. pretty dire, Koko. Shouto's assessment made me think it had to do with resource allocation, but I don't think there's much to be done when there's nothing to spread around. What does your son think? With that quirk?" Mitsuki pressed her, tiptoeing around Inko's nerves just to mash her heel in all the right places.

She didn't waste any time thoroughly pulling answers from Shouto, did she? Inko held eye contact with the other Queen, but there was no contingency plan. Nothing she could substitute in when critical information had fallen into her hands so fortuitously.

She could feel Mitsuki's boot on her throat, but Midoriyas didn't back down.

"So what you're telling me," Inko said, quietly smoothing down the fabric of her gown with a slow push of her hands up her knee, "Is that you have months old information stolen from a young man by means of outlawed torture."

"Not outlawed here. We didn't sign that treaty." Mitsuki reminded her with a frown.

"Yes, that's right. Laws prohibiting inhumane and barbaric means of extracting information would be too much too consider for Bakugous, I suppose."

"Forgive me, Inko, but I don't see what you're getting at. Outdated or not, I'd think that conditions have only worsened since Shouto's last observation," She said, her smile straining at the corners of her grit teeth. "Furthermore, I have the strongest weapon in your hand in quirk suppressors."

The Queen was beginning to become hard to look at. There was a certain glint to her red eyes, ultraviolet and harsh. Her pupils had dilated rather suddenly to slits, her posture had become rigid instead of relaxed.

"That's contrary to your own beliefs, isn't it, Mitsuki?" Inko asked her, despite the fury her omega had been producing at the idea of Izuku becoming disempowered and helpless. "In your own culture, as an alpha having hurt an omega, his parents have full right to exact revenge."

"That right goes to their alpha once they take a mate," Mitsuki snapped, overruling her.

The words sucked the air out of the room, Mitsuki straining to take deep breaths. Inko let her have silence, finally breaking their stare to glance at Masaru.

"How convenient," she observed.

Mitsuki hissed, her fingers snatching out to grip her wine glass. To her left, Masaru closed his hands around her free one, thumbs working down her palm to rub at her wrist. She tilted her head towards him, and Inko suspected calming words slipping over their link like cool water on a burn.

Behind her, Inko could practically see the cracks in her guards' composure. She had partnered with neither, but she knew her guards well. It wasn't uncommon for alphas and betas to become instinctively upset when seeing her under threat by another, and Inko assumed it was a remnant of the old pack mentality of ancient clans.

Her own subtle body language was probably easy to read through the years, despite the lack of scent giveaways. Inko's hands usually rested on her stomach, not her her knee or thighs. Her expression was composed, but once she had looked away from Mitsuki, when she returned her glare with a frosty look of her own, she began chewing the inside of her cheek.

"I'm offering you a deal." Mitsuki's voice was clipped, tight, and infuriated. It wasn't lost on Inko how easy it was to jab at her nerves with a few asides about her culture, but then again..

Her other hand had disappeared under the table, which Inko would have dismissed if in the silence, her sensitive ears didn't pick a thick picking sound. Soft and repetitive, pulling and releasing.

Just how much did Mitsuki rely on scent?

"A _generous_ deal, actually. The same I made with your son."

Inko dipped her chin once. "An alliance in exchange for my son. I'm.. aware of the fertility issues your kingdom faces, Mitsuki, and my heart goes out to your people. Children are very cheri-"

"You would not only be allied with the strongest country on the continent, but the war you are very clearly _losing_, Midoriya Inko, would be over. Your lands would not be razed, your omegas wouldn't be taken. We would open trade routes and rebuild for you." Mitsuki's voice was fierce, a whip of fire through the dry air. "Your ward would be safe with me, safe from Enji. Your _son _would be safe with me."

Inko bit down again, tasting bits of iron on her tongue. "Izuku agreed to this."

Mitsuki jerked her head in a nod.

And yet she was still asking her, Inko realized. That was a litany of offerings just for her boy, like an alpha was supposed to make while courting an omega.

She didn't recognize her son as Katsuki's mate. She needed time, and hypocrite as Mitsuki was, in some way, she recognized Inko's right over him. She wouldn't proceed otherwise.

But.. she also needed Izuku on her side. It was possible that Mitsuki wouldn't even proceed with the war, it was possible she was bluffing in the first place. If she had decided to destroy his home, if she turned over Shouto, there would be no chance of Izuku ever complying.

"I want to see them." Inko said suddenly, her pale green eyes lighting up. "I want to see them both. I want to see how you're keeping them, if what you're saying is true."

Some of the wildness in Mitsuki's expression drained away, her brows lifting cautiously. "Of course. I would have preferred that Izuku ate with us, but he was caught on another escape attempt earlier this evening. He might not be good to talk to."

* * *

Katsuki had grown since she had last seen him. He must have shot up a foot and a half in the three years since she had seen him in the latest doomed attempt at making peace, but he carried himself the same way. Same slouch, same dissatisfied scowl, same utterly defensive way of looking about himself.

"Did you not hear the messenger?" He snarled down to his mother, who was leaning against the wall that held the threshold to Katsuki's hall.

"My hearing is perfectly intact, brat!" Mitsuki reached up, snapping her fingers to Katsuki's cheek to pinch between like a crab and bring his head down. Katsuki, uninhibited by lucinium, threw an _offensive_ alpha scent at her, more angry than anything, and Mitsuki just tugged his face more emphatically. "Put that shit away! I'm trying to _work_, here, and you're no help."

"He's asleep, you batty crone. And I'm sure seeing your smiling face is going to do so much for him, just let him fucking sleep-"

"I have his _mother_ here, and I'm sure she's getting the best impression of you, too."

Katsuki paused, looking over his mother's shoulder to make eye contact with Inko. The Queen offered him nothing but a neutral glance, but it was enough to turn his irate look far more mild.

"Auntie."

"Inko, if you don't mind." Inko corrected him, giving an acknowledging nod. "How is Izuku?"

Katsuki had the grace to almost look guilty, if the quick glance to his feet said anything. "He's.. he's been asleep for a few hours."

"A midday nap doesn't sound very much like Izuku." Inko said mildly, knowing full well where this was going.

Katsuki shifted uncomfortably, and Inko caught a surprised look from Mitsuki. "He was looking for Ha - Shouto. He lost his guards." He muttered.

"I see. They've been kept apart?" Inko asked, her tone kept consistently even.

His jaw jutted to the side, and his teeth ground together. "Yeah."

"I would like to see him now, Katsuki. Is that alright?" Inko arched a brow. It seemed oddly like trying to get into a nursery to see a royal infant, what with how cagey everyone was around the corridor.

Mitsuki and Katsuki exchanged a glance, Inko's placid face turning to one Bakugou and then the other. "You heard her," Mitsuki said when Katsuki looked to her for help. "She's his mother."

He grunted, relenting with an almost sheepish reluctance. "Yeah. A- Inko. He's in my room."

Katsuki walked stiffly through the threshold, and Inko followed, passing through the barrier.

The difference was immediate. Quiet closed down on them, but not like a thick comforter was dropped on them. To Inko, it was like closing the door on a noisy party to catch a few moments of fresh air.

Little enchanted bubbles of fire hung in the air, casting just enough light to make the doors on the hall visible. It smelled like the garden verandah just after the sun had set and the heat of the day was gone, vaguely dewy and cool, and Inko noticed the ceiling had dropped as well, making the hallway a little more snug.

It was shorter, too. Most hallways were long and grand, utilitarian but gorgeous. This one was short and windowless, leading directly to Katsuki's room.

Katsuki himself led the way with his lips turned down, territorial alphan scent filtering in over the humidity in the air. When he rested his hand on the handle of his door, he kept his arm out to bar the two mothers entry, casting a dark look over his shoulder. "Don't wake him up, hag. He doesn't need to be woken up after this kind of day."

What kind of day was that, then?

With that, he silently pushed the door open, and Inko sucked in a breath.

The room had been _destroyed._

The tapestries on the wall had been ripped off, the tattered remnants of the fabric hanging limply off the metal poles. A bookcase had been toppled over, and books had been scattered across the floor, some pages littering the area around the bed.

Next to the bookcase was a desk, but it took some mental putting together to understand that that was the broken pieces of wood were supposed to be. The legs had been snapped off, wood splintered and jutting out at odd angles, and the surface had been roughly broken in half. The same went for the dresser to the right of the bed, a hole the size of a foot in the one drawer left inside it. The rest were broken, clothes strewn about and drawers roughly torn apart.

The bed had been stripped down to it mattress, and it looked like there was an attempt to break it as well. There was a sizable dent in one of the intricately wrought posts, but no further damage, aside from all the bed sheets being pooled on the floor.

And there lay Inko's son, unconscious in a nest of pillows, blankets, sheets, and the torn tapestries. His bandaged fingers gripped the comforter, his face pressed into a nearby pillow as he slept in a cocoon of blankets. There was a groove next to him, about half his size, and coming from it was the only hint of Katsuki's scent Inko could detect.

The room absolutely _reeked_ of omegan despair, and it hung in the air so heavily Inko could almost hear her son's yells shaking the walls. Izuku's scent was everywhere, smeared on the walls, spread across the sheets, and ripped into the flakes of broken wood with his claws.

Quiet rang in the air like the minutes after a horrific storm passes, and Inko could pin the scene exactly for what it was.

"He found him. Shouto." Katsuki muttered by way of explanation, arms crossed as he immediately went to stand by the nest. Inko caught a hateful look in Mitsuki's direction as he passed, but it was promptly lost on her as she quickly moved in behind him to check over the boy on the floor.

As Inko kneeled beside him to push her fingers through his bangs, pulling his hair away from his face, she observed the sallow tinge to his usually supple, tan skin, and the darkening color under his eyes. His freckles showed stark against his skin, now, and the lips she knew to be easy to prompt into an easy smile turned down slightly even in his sleep.

Upon closer inspection, she saw it wasn't his hands that were bandaged, but his knuckles. It was with some difficulty, given the quirk suppressing braces on his wrists and the bandaging overlapped some of the enchanted fabric.

Beside her, Inko finally picked up the possessive growl Katsuki had rumbling low in his throat after several moments of just petting through Izuku's hair. His hands were in fists in his own lap, the growl cutting in and out in a clear attempt at controlling it.

"This.." Inko began quietly, "Is the protection you're offering my son?"

Mitsuki stiffened behind her, and Inko knew it was because they both knew what had caused the destruction in front of them.

A last-ditch attempt at self-soothing was what it was. Inko had only seen it in omegas utterly dependent on another alpha's soothing pheromones, or those undergoing torture and strung out on the same thing. Omegas witnessing the death of their alpha or their young, too, but none of this made sense. Midoriyas were never dependent on scent unless it was a heat case, and they never displayed this kind of dependence otherwise, either.

It was far more common in alphas, but when it struck omegas, it was often much worse.

A massive upheaval of a closed in area, a restructuring of anything they could get their hands on. Alphas might spend hours obsessively rearranging their dens, but an omega's panic was far more destructive. The scent marking of the new territory was often more thorough in omegas, because it was an attempt at feeling _safe._ If their surroundings look nothing like they did before, if they were saturated in their scent, that meant the area was theirs, right? It meant it was safe, didn't it?

Despite herself, she desperately wanted to give him the the kind of pheromonal comfort she was only able to give him during the first two years of his life.

"What is it he saw, Mitsuki?" Inko's voice remained the same volume, one hand petting through Izuku's hair while she rubbed his cheek with her other hand, trying to give his face its usual high color. "What have you done to Shouto?"

"He's alive," Mitsuki snapped back defensively, Katsuki's irritable growl ticking up a few notches.

A sinking feeling in her stomach was making that hard to believe.

"He's _alive,_ Inko. A little worse for wear, but he's up and walking around now. He had a wound that had been cauterized and infected, and our top medics saw to it."

"I know you wouldn't hurt him physically." Inko murmured despite the hole of doubt beginning to open up just beneath her ribs. "What is it he saw?"

No, Shouto was not her child. But he came to her with dirty, bloody legs coated in mud and arms wrapped tight around Izuku, and she hadn't found it in her heart to turn him away. Not when he stared up at her so fearfully with the one eye that hadn't been covered by a stained, ripped bandage.

Mitsuki called her her ward, but he was her son. She had believed it would be only a matter of time before it was made official in paperwork.

Her omega _roared_ to pull Izuku into her arms and pull the castle apart, brick by brick, to retrieve Shouto. Bundle them both against her chest and hold them away from the horrors of war and politics against these - these barbarians that would call themselves human.

"He found the interrogation cell." Katsuki was the one to break her thoughts, although he didn't address her directly. His eyes were trained on the soothing, slow path Inko's fingers were traveling down to comb through Izuku's hair. "He saw him chained to the wall and delirious."

"Delirious is an overstatement!" Mitsuki hissed, and the infuriated look Katsuki sent in her direction almost burned Inko on its way up to her.

"Keep your fucking voice down," Katsuki's voice was prickly but soft, a cotton ball rolled in thorns. "What you did to that bastard is half the reason Izuku is so freaked out all the damn time, _hag_. They're still connected."

"Superficially. It shouldn't have any effect on him-"

"Are you _in_ his _head_?"

Mitsuki canted her chin up, and Inko felt a rage rise up, sharp and hot. "Forgive me. I don't believe my question was fully answered?" She intervened, her voice a tightly drawn tightrope of restraint. The longer this went on, the more fingers itched to snatch her baby into her arms.

Katsuki turned instead to look at her, Mitsuki taking the sleight with a mildly offended _huh_, and addressed her with a little nod. "I didn't see much, and what I know I heard from Izuku. Bastard was apparently holed up against the corner of his cell and starin' at nothing. Apparently the fear scent is what scared Izuku the most, and I told Shouto's guards to make him more comfortable before we left."

The last bit was more begrudging than Inko would have liked, and she suspected a lie in there somewhere. "Before you left?"

His eyes cast towards the left. "I took him back here." Katsuki dropped his voice, but it still sounded weighed down. "So he'd feel better."

Below them, Izuku shifted, drawing in a deep, long breath.

Both alphas were alert, and the attention on her son was as invasive as it was vigilant. Their attention shifted before even Inko could react, and protectively, Inko adjusted her posture, leaning on her right thigh to obscure her son's face from Mitsuki's probing eye.

When she shifted, her hand dipping under Izuku's cheek to cup his jaw, he turned her face into her palm, inhaling deeply once again. And then he smiled, his nose buried into her skin.

Katsuki's breathing hitched, his expression unchanging but his eyes widened a bit and trained on his face.

The three of them waited for Izuku to wake, Inko with anxious anticipation, but the other two with an almost obsessive air between them. But as the seconds dragged on, Izuku didn't move, and his scent remained unchanging (while Inko cringed at being able to pick up the intimate scent of sunshine on grass). He was still probably deep sleep; she had seen that kind of snuggling between her two boys enough to know.

Her thumb ran over the apple of his speckled cheeks, and she looked back at Katsuki's curiously soft face. "Back here?" She prompted him once more, and he nearly started, his face drawing back down into an accusatory frown.

He glanced back down at Izuku, and Inko noted the wince narrowing his eyes, even when he looked so irate. "He made that nest." His voice barely crossed the threshold into being a whisper. "About a week ago. I thought it would help."

"I see." Inko murmured back. "That was the best decision you could have made."

Katsuki's posture straightened at the praise, and Inko caught the preening kind of pleasure that flashed in his eyes for a moment.

Before that could continue, she turned her head to look at Mitsuki. The Queen's attention was still on Izuku, and her expression was odd, one side of her mouth pulled back in a thoughtful grimace.

"I'd like to be alone with him. If he doesn't wake within the next ten minutes, I'd also like to be shown where Shouto is being held."

Mitsuki jerked her head in her direction, and she pursed her lips, considering that request. She glanced to Katsuki, and offered "Would you let him stay with you?"

Inko wanted to growl and snap back that she needed no supervision to be with her son, irritated with the attempt over holding control over the situation. "I would prefer to be alone, if that's alright, Mitsuki."

She didn't even blink at the bite ending the last syllable of her name. "Oh, if you insist." Mitsuki sighed, as if it were some great travesty. "Come along, Katsuki. You have better things to do than stare at him for another three hours."

The pride in his expression gone, Katsuki glowered back at his mother, rising to his feet begrudgingly. The two left the room, two twin pairs of expensive sounding boots clicking across the floor until the door opened silently, and then clicked shut.

Finally left alone, Inko let a long sigh escape her lips, and she bent to kiss Izuku's cheek and rest her nose right against the soft pile of his curls at the nape of his neck. "Oh, baby," She whispered, right against his skin. "I'll find some way for us out of this. Just you wait."


	6. Chapter 6

"Shou," Izuku called softly, closing the double doors behind him with his back. They didn't swing silently, like the clean close of Katsuki's door, and they rattled when he pushed back off.

This was not where he found him several days ago. The dungeons were quiet and cold, the air dingy and wet. Cells lined the walls, and the meager light provided was nothing like the warm glow inside the main palace. The flames were an eerie silver, casting unnatural white light on the walls, and even in the broad shadows between each flame, Izuku couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.

These were guest chambers.

They weren't as grand as the royal rooms he had seen, but they were much more comfortable than the cell he found him in. He had a bed, he had a desk, he had a _window, _where weak evening sun rays filtered in.

He didn't have bracers. The stale fear-scent hanging in the room made that obvious, but it was tinged with an odd sense of calm. Like glue had seeped in through the cracks made by terror, holding the fragile scent together.

The sight of him, when his eyes adjusted to the meager candlelight, threw his omega for a loop. Izuku wanted to sink his teeth into every member of the Bakugou royal family just for the shadows under his eyes and cheek bones, or what he could see of them.

A mask had been tied over his mouth and nose, and it held snug against his jaw. It was a familiar white color, he noted with a vague sense of satisfaction, and that meant he had gotten it from his bracer.

Shouto's eyes were closed, his breathing steady under the thick fabric of the mask. His upper body had been propped up against the creamy pillows, and his legs were under the bed's fleecy blanket. His fingers were laced together on his stomach, moving in time with his breath.

It made his omega want to stand down and curl up next to him to give him warmth, but it trembled somewhat under the weight of something that felt like betrayal.

Izuku brushed its infidelity away, and while it refocused itself on anger, Shouto opened his eyes.

"'Zuku."

_Oh,_ that worked. That definitely worked. Shouto's voice was never loud, but it was also typically dry or lacked inflection altogether. This voice.. this voice was a different meaning of quiet. It was quiet in its atonality, but also quiet in its lack of the steady backbone Shouto always had. It was like a note had been taken out of a held chord, but it was the bottommost, lowest note, and it made the music sound overbright and brittle.

"Mitsuki let you see me?"

Shouto tilted his head, his eyes crinkling humorlessly at the corners. Izuku's vision refocused on his face as he spoke, and he could swear the borders of what he could see were darkening to a soft black.

"As long as I promised to stop trying to find you," Izuku nodded, and he winced internally at the way his voice cracked down a faultline at _find._ He cleared his throat, stepping closer to rest his hand on the foot of the bed.

More accurately, once his mother had arrived and somehow managed to commandeer an appropriate living situation from Mitsuki's long, manicured claws. She had mentioned that their meeting was tense and policy-focused, and he remembered being very acutely aware of the distasteful curl of her lip and the pointed turn of her back towards the door. Behaviors that would have been acceptable here, but he didn't know his mother to give in to omegan territorial displays.

Shouto dipped his chin, and a slim hand skimmed over the comforter to reach towards him. Izuku's body reacted instantly, his feet carrying him forward toward him until he was able to take his cool, almost cold hand in both of his own. He brought it up towards his lips, as he always did, just to blow hot air on it as if he were worried about frostbite.

It got a laugh out of him. At least, a half-hearted _heh_ that made the corners of Izuku's lips turn up to compensate. Stepping closer still, he took a seat on the bed next to him, holding his hand in his lap and skimming the sides of his palms up and down with his thumbs.

"You found me once," He agreed, his fingers lacing in between the spaces of Izuku's own. "She probably didn't like that."

Izuku's brows shot up, and his lips pursed to keep a shocked laugh that was written all over his face in. "More like she didn't like my response to it."

His thumbnail traced over the edge of the quirk suppressing _cuff_ \- as he had heard them being called -, and it filled Izuku's hands with that adrenaline fueled almost-itch that came in the warm up before a sprint drill.

"No." Shouto said, observing the maroon threading. "She doesn't like things she can't control."

"I was beginning to feel like I was added to that list." Izuku blurted, the shame that had been bubbling up in his belly for the past two weeks pushing past his lips and tongue. His head dropped, and he watched Shouto's long fingers move over his cuffs.

"Of the things she can control?" He asked, and in his guilty quiet, Izuku watched the practiced motions of Shouto's hand moving over his scars and knuckles.

He didn't feel the need to speak for the hole opening up inside his stomach and chest, but his scent spoke for him, the traitorous thing. It made him want to cover up his glands like he did now with every change in his emotion for the negative, prevent any alpha from smelling any hint of distress.

Alphas here felt entitled to his comfort, Izuku was finding. It made them explicitly uncomfortable to be made aware of his distress, and therefore any measure could be taken to shut him up.

Similar to a pup crying, he supposed.

"I don't think I can fault you for that, Izuku." Shouto finally murmured into the long beat of silence, and suddenly that shameful hole of his opened a little wider at the edges, like a scab tearing back open after goinng back to sparring too early. They both knew the things Shouto had endured; the bruised skin under his eyes and that jarring, uncomfortable air of fragility made it more than evident how much psychological torture he had endured on his behalf. His hypocritical omega longed to pull him up into a hug to stroke his hair.

But he didn't.

Midoriyas didn't give in like that, and they both knew that.

So instead, Izuku took comfort in the small physical connection they had and tried to beat down his want to wail over him.

"I appreciate that," Izuku forced a laugh, even though neither one of them wanted to smile.

Shouto rolled his eyes, and what little he could see of his expression utterly wry. "You're welcome. I'd ask.. what you've been up to, but I can assume."

Izuku's cheeks burned enough to light up the room, nausea creeping back up his throat to make him reckon with his shame once again. It wasn't a reprimand, but it certainly felt as damning as one.

"I haven't really held my composure, have I?" He whispered, his free hand working on pressing his claws in and out of his own palm. "I haven't been a very good example, huh?"

"I think that has something to do with the alpha right outside our door." Shouto said sarcastically, and when his head snapped up, he knew his incredulity was written all over his face.

Izuku jerked his head towards the door, huffing an irritated breath through his nose. Of course Katsuki was just beyond the door, his comforting spicy scent filtering under the wood already working to soothe his frayed nerves. He must have gotten so used to all the pheromones competing for his attention that Katsuki's scent had become almost neutral.

It was more mild than usual, and he knew Katsuki was deliberately keeping it in check so it wouldn't agitate either one of them.

Knowing that agitated him anyway.

"How could you scent him that easily with that mask on?" Izuku asked, instinctively reaching to tug the fabric up so it more thoroughly covered the bridge of Shouto's nose. It was a simple, intimate, (_utterly inappropriate, _he scolded his omega) gesture, and Shouto's eyes fluttered shut for a second as he took in a slow breath.

It came out in another half-amused puff. "I'm in scent isolation, Izuku. Even this far away from everyone is pretty unbearable."

Izuku stiffened, the muscular twitch traveling up the base of his spine to his neck to straighten his posture. His hand tightened around Shouto's in sympathy, tugging it to rest against his chest.

Inappropriate still, and Shouto's brows rose as he looked to him with pinkening cheeks.

"Is - is it bad? Do I need to leave?" He fretted, unable to return his gaze. "Neither of us have our bracers, neither of us can really - really do anything about this, but if you want me to go, I can go. God, I'm sure Katsuki's scent is just as overwhelming as Mitsuki's for you, I'm sorry."

Shouto was quiet, allowing him to babble his anxieties out while studying his face. When he finally ended, the hand in Izuku's own tightened in a comforting squeeze, and Shouto dipped his chin in an attempt to meet Izuku's eyes. They remained stubbornly trained on his lap, his lips pursed so he could bite down.

He let the quiet afterwards stretch, so much that Izuku began to get uncomfortable. Shouto had never been one to fill silence, and Izuku began to feel the cringe on his face want to tighten and worsen until his body turned into a black hole of embarrassment.

"Izuku," his name was an exhale as Shouto brought his hand over to rest in his own lap. Izuku had to lean forward, his spine drawn taught with his anxiety. "I.. can't fault you. It was our own fault for getting captured, but based upon what your mother told me, I…"

"What am I going to do?" Izuku whispered back, "There's no escape from this unless I comply with Mitsuki-"

"Izuku," Shouto repeated, shaking his head. "That kind of thinking isn't productive. There's a way. There's _always_ a way, even if we don't see it right now. We have to think and find it."

He looked up, eyes searching. Izuku felt himself wanting to wither, knowing that even with their bond being tattered and broken, he wouldn't be able to find what he was looking for.

Izuku turned his head, because he knew what he would find instead. "Do you have any ideas?"

From what he could smell, even though he was fighting to keep it controlled, Shouto's concern and worry was beginning to seep into the air, and it was a spiky, fretful mint. His omega crowed at the idea of comfort, even if he would never accept it.

"Don't worry about me." Izuku jerked his head away. "I can't take it, Shou, I really can't. Not when- not when you've already been hurt like this. All they've done to me is give me a false mate and try to starve me out using my instincts. I'll be fine, and I'll get us out of this."

"That's all they did to me." Shouto reminded him. "Subverting us with our instincts is what other people _do_, Izuku. Undermine our power over ourselves because they can't defeat us otherwise. It's cowardice and they know it."

_Is it?_ Izuku wondered, and indignation filtered in over Katsuki's side of the link.

He sent a glare in its direction, and as his mother had advised him the day before, visualized a door slamming shut with enough mental force to almost hear it. There was a recoil from the other end, like he had to physically pull away, and he didn't feel one bit of shame when satisfaction filled up the negative space he left.

Shouto, on the other hand, was pressing off the bed, his typically pokerfaced expression pulling into a dark frown. A hot, offensive smell, like a combination of smoke and boiling water began to fill the room, and Izuku turned to him with a start.

"Shouto!"

"What did he say to you?"

"Shou, this isn't like y-"

"What did he _say_ to you?" Shouto snapped, and Izuku found himself faltering back, his chin ducking down towards his chest and his eyes casting downwards.

It was like the moment after dropping a glass bottle into hot water, glass shards flying in every direction but hitting Izuku with a fidelity. He could feel each cut, slices along his shoulders and throat, and the burning pain immediately afterwards was something like an open wound being cauterized.

The grip on Izuku's hand had tightened as well, having shifted from a light, comforting touch to a sharp vice around his wrist.

It hurt, Izuku realized.

Shouto's breath came out in a sudden gust through his nostrils, and he could swear it was the only air in the room.

Keeping his eyes trained on the bed, Izuku murmured "_Shouto,_" but it didn't seem to matter as he was being pulled forward, eyes like slits trained on his face.

His body jerked forward, and Shouto used that momentum to grip his arm and bring his wrist up towards his neck. "Shouto-" Izuku tried again, only for the alpha to drag his wrist in a sharp path across his own throat.

Izuku's mouth dropped open, and while he tried to uselessly call out his name again, the sound died in his throat when he was able to look at his face.

His pupils were dilated into tiny slits, but it wasn't anger and aggression edging sharp lines into his face. It was desperation, making his eyes wide and wet and arching his brows high.

_What the f-_

Izuku reached for Shouto to block him out, burying his face right against the gland he had just marked him with. Shouto's arms slipped around him without any of his typical hesitation, bringing him forward with enough force for him to slip into his lap. His wrists raked down his sides, up and down his back, through his hair, and over his arms.

It was marking, territorial marking, but Izuku didn't care.

He slipped his fingers into his hair with one hand, his other gripping at his shirt and tugging the fabric to pull them flush. Shouto's arms came down to wrap low around his hips as he shifted to straddle his lap, a shaking, halting sigh constricting his throat.

"_It's okay,_" Izuku whispered into his throat, inhaling the neutralizing scent of Shouto's despair to exhale and let the gross mess of omegan pheromones out. It felt like hot wax bubbling and bursting under his throat and wrists, and a little like needing to throw up when he tried to stop it.

"_Izuku_," Shouto croaked into his hair, his voice cracking his heart open to let his anxiety burst out. His arms wrapped tight around him, chaining them together, and Izuku dug his knees into either side of his hips to try and push his very being into him.

Hips rising, he pushed them forward together until Shouto's back met the pillows once again and the wooden headboard dug into the back of his aching head. _I'm here, I'm here, I'm here_, he tried desperately, raising his voice until it was an overwhelming wail trying to ring its way past Katsuki's ears to get into Shouto's head.

Shouto's hands pushed against the fabric of his ridiculous tunic, and for a desperate second Izuku wanted it off, desperately wanted to have that skin on skin connection with his true partner. He reached around, pulling Shouto's hands from his back and ignoring his halfhearted growl to clasp their hands tightly together and resituate himself with their hands pressed together by their chests.

As he pressed his nose under the hem of Shouto's flimsy shirt, finding the space between his neck and his collarbone, the insatiable but terrified animal pacing deep in his heart found some relief.

And then informed him he was an irredeemable, conniving person.

When they woke up (hours afterward, Izuku assumed, given the stickiness in his neck and face his absolutely dead hands), Shouto's hair was draped haphazardly over his eyes from where he had thrown his head back against the headboard. From where Izuku could see, tucked into his neck, he was dreaming, his breath steady and restful.

He slowly rolled his body back, his spine giving several pops in protest and the muscles in his neck absolutely shrieking along with it. Beneath him, Shouto pulled in a deeper, sharper breath, and Izuku immediately stiffened, holding his own breath as his eyes trained on his face. While Shouto had never been a deep sleeper, it's what he deserved right now, Izuku thought. He deserved a few good dreams for the mess Izuku had gotten them into, here.

Izuku loosened one of his hands from Shouto's, skimming his palm down so he could turn his forearm over to check his wrist. In the days following removing his bracers, at least the toxicity from the lucinium had gone down somewhat. Instead of a dark grey, the weblike paths over his gland had lightened a little, and had receded to the middle of his forearm.

He held out his own arm, recently unbandaged, for comparison. Shouto had been due for a break earlier than he had, but his own marks were darker, his gland somewhat swollen. Izuku narrowed his eyes, lifting his wrist closer to his eyes for further inspection, and began counting.

Halfway through, Shouto yawned, and Izuku felt a smile tugging at his lips as he watched Shouto's hand dig into the bed to push himself to stretch, his gaze catching almost indulgently on the light catching his jaw to his throat.

Travelling lower still, he watched the bandaging at the base of his throat roll as he swallowed, and then his chest rise with a more lucid breath. Shouto's hand squeezed around his own as he squeezed his eyes shut, and then opened them.

They widened as they focused on the man sitting in his lap, and the longer he stared, the more pink began to stain his cheeks.

A little red himself, Izuku couldn't hold his gaze. "Morning," he tried, a little awkwardly.

"Good morning." Shouto replied, somewhat under his breath. In the corner of his eye, Izuku could spot him duck his chin a little in embarrassment, and it made a sunny little giddy feeling bubble up in his chest and throat, and he almost laughed.

"Did you sleep alright?" Izuku asked, picking at a little fluff in the blanket and pulling it up betwen his claws.

"Well enough." His voice was quieter than usual, Izuku noted. "You?"

Izuku paused with his half open, hesitating. His brain rushed to assure him that he slept way better, _obviously._ He slept like a baby, and clearly it was because he was with his childhood friend and his actual partner.

Of course, that ignored that despite whatever put him to sleep, he.. had been sleeping well. Better than usual, actually. Even when it wasn't in something like a drug-induced comatose, it was deep, restful sleep. Nothing like it was when he was awake, but.. he typically woke up feeling rested.

And he didn't right now.

He just felt more tired, _which made sense, _cut in his head. _Feeling tired after an emotional meeting with a traumatically separated partner is normal, even after resting with each other. Don't be silly._

"Good." Izuku reasoned, more forcefully than need be. "I- slept well. Thanks."

Shouto's arched brow was all the confirmation he needed that he wasn't at all sounding normal, and when Izuku tried to meet his gaze, a sudden jolt went through him.

An _ache,_ dull and swollen, squeezed around his wrists, and then shot up towards his throat to sit at the base of his throat. It was as if he had swallowed something too rich and it was stuck in his throat, and his stomach rolled with potent nausea. It didn't take long for it to turn into a full body throbbing, similar to how it was when he was younger and often sick, and he groaned, ducking his head into Shouto's shoulder.

Katsuki's surprise and immediate protective ferociousness slammed into him over their bond, and Izuku bent at the waist, the pain only extending up to fill his head with heavy lead. _Go away! _

He felt Shouto's hands reach out for him, grab his hands so he could brace against them, and hummed a low, low tone similar to a purr.

"It'll pass," He said, his voice gravelly around his humming and his thumbs tracing down to begin rubbing firmly at his wrist glands. It send shocks to his fingers, and Izuku gasped, gritting his teeth against the added pain. "It'll pass, Izuku, remember? Breathe deeply, in through your nose, out through your mouth."

"Trying," Izuku choked back as Shouto drove his thumbs into his wrists, and he swore his hands went numb for a moment. "It's too much, please-"

"It's alright. It has to be done, and you're almost through it." He brought their foreheads together, practically forcing the familiar scent of warmth and mint down his throat. It eased the pain somewhat, but it came to a head in his throat.

Izuku gave a low moan, pressing his chin to his chest instinctively. Shouto released his red, inflamed wrists, shifting to cradle his face with both hands.

"We're done with the worst part, Izuku. It's just your throat n-"

The door slammed open, the wood smacking against the stone wall sharply, and Katsuki's furious, hot scent dominated the neutral, minty air with an aggravating ease. Shouto's fingertips dugs into Izuku's jaw, an angry, protective glare casting hot over his shoulder as he cut Katsuki off before he could speak.

"Get out."

"What the fuck is going on here?" Katsuki snarled back, his scent and _posture_ begging Shouto to put up a fight.

"It's being handled." Shouto said, his voice quiet and calm and his scent remaining neutral. Izuku buried his face against his throat, holding his shirt in a white knuckled grip. "And you're not helping at all. Get. Out."

Katsuki's wild eyes went from Shouto to Izuku, and then the damning position they were in, with a threatening flare of his nostrils. "Listen to me, you icy-hot bastard. You have exactly ten seconds to explain what in the _flying fuck_ is going on before I figure it out myself and then punch your _fucking face in._"

"So we're still not helping the situation." Shouto muttered, a waver in his control sending hot ash down Izuku's lungs for just a moment. "Let me handle this and then-"

"You better explain it right the fuck now, asshole, because you've got four seconds."

Shouto exhaled through his nose, locking his jaw. "Complications associated with lucinium withdrawal." He lied, and luckily it was enough to surprise Katsuki into stalling out of his anger, but not for long.

"I thought lucinium made you sick, not the other way around."

"It's still something being used long-term." Shouto fired back, his hand slipping into Izuku's hair to keep him in place and hide him from the pheromones burning his nose. Katsuki's red eyes followed every absent stroke of his fingers. "I'm handling it, Katsuki, and I'd be more than happy to explain the nuances, but-"

"Show me how to deal with it."

Izuku was looking at Katsuki incredulously before he was aware he had turned his head, and the alpha's eyes were trained on him with the same kind of intent they did when he was puzzling out a petition that interested him. _As a problem?_

Katsuki sharply shook his head. _As a part of you, _and then addressed Shouto again. "It's gonna continue to be an issue, right? It's not like it works itself out immediately, right?"

"No." Shouto agreed cautiously, turning his chin down to exchange a look with Izuku. "It doesn't work itself out immediately, no-"

"So I'm gonna have to deal with it in the future, right? So I need to know how to fix it." He said, chin dipping for a moment in his determination. "And how to care for him."

The two Midoriyas exchanged on odd look, even if Izuku's teeth were gritted with exertion.

"Katsuki." Izuku said, his voice coming out from between his teeth. The alpha perked up, like a dog waiting for a command, shifting slightly from one foot to the next with fretful energy.

"I ju-"

"You heard me." Izuku interrupted him, swallowing roughly. "I know you did."

Katsuki took a step back, his hands going up. "You were in pain, what was I supposed to do-"

"You were supposed to listen!" He shouted back, _I am in pain! And you're making it worse! _"Go away!"

_I'm trying to help, asshole! _"I can't just leave you like this-"

"Like what? Like with someone who can actually help?" _You already make me feel weak, why would I want your help here when I'm _actually _feeling it?_

"I'm saying let me see what to do so I can help when this happens again, Izuku!"

"I will _never-_" Izuku snarled, forcing his torso around while shoving himself out of Shouto's gentle grip. "-accept your kind of 'help,' Katsuki. It isn't help. You don't help. Your mother doesn't help. You know who does?"

Katsuki rose his posture up, accepting the challenge. The scent rolling off of him made Izuku want to hiss and spit, and he growled through the spicy, sharp pheromones. It sent fresh pain from his throat to his head, full and throbbing, but he refused to fall from his knees.

"My mother does. _Shouto_-" he flung his arm towards Shouto, who was still sitting behind him curiously, with a furious gust of something like ozone and the first gust of wind before a cold front. "-does! Now go! I don't want to see you until I _have_ to."

"I-"

"You don't care about anything I have to say, Katsuki! Why should I care about anything you have to say?"

That loud mouth of his fell open, and Izuku could sense the exact moment his mind went down the same route it always did. _Because you're my omega. Because I'm your alpha. _

"I'm not yours, and you're not mine! And besides that, I'm a person!" Izuku yelled. "I don't care if we're bonded before your gods and your mother and your people, I don't want to see you until you listen to me!"

Chest heaving, he pointed to the door with a clawed finger, territorial omegan scent pushing towards Katsuki like a slap to his face. "Get," he exhaled the word, and behind him, Shouto knew to at least turn his face away, "_out!_"


	7. Chapter 7

"I'm going outside." Izuku announced, passing Katsuki by on his way to his side of the room. Neither had said much to the other in the days that had passed since Izuku had found Shouto in the dungeons, and there had been an utter silence between them after Katsuki had barged in on them in Shouto's room.

Katsuki's furniture and decorations had been replaced, and his room had been cleaned.

Izuku stayed there as little as possible.

The alpha, up early as he always was, reading or going through petitions or going downstairs to train, immediately turned his head in Izuku's direction. Granted, it had been the first words he had spoken to him in a few days, but Izuku visibly didn't anticipate the sharp look of analysis that passed over his expression.

"You're meeting with Todoroki." He surmised blandly, the corners of his mouth turning down in a frown.

A mirroring almost-grimace pulled at his own lips, but he had the sense to stop it before it appeared. "His name is Midoriya Shouto." Izuku reminded him, hiking his tunic up to his hips. "And.. while I understand 'Todoroki' is a step up from 'Half'n Half,' his name is Shouto."

Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Half'n Half."

An exasperated breath puffing out from his lungs, Izuku turned his face away. Something hurt and resigned swelled in Katsuki's stomach, but he quickly shoved it down.

"In any case," Izuku said while neatly pulling the long, trailing fabric of his tunic off. Katsuki stiffened in surprise, watching him toss the priceless garment onto the bed and tug the tight undershirt he wore underneath down to cover the hem of his leggings. "Yes, I am."

It was inflammatory. Both of them knew that as Izuku stretched his arms up, one arm bending over his head to form a right angle as he pulled his other up. It pulled the defined, sinewy muscles of his arms up and out, displaying them proudly, and Katsuki's eyes devoured the now exposed skin located just below his armpit, up his bare shoulders, and traced every inch of the jagged skin occupying most of the freckled space.

Not even deeming to look at him as he stretched, Izuku tilted his head back, arching his spine and exposing his throat.

It made him smell _delicious._ He smelled like easy confidence, sunlight on grass right before an exciting spar. It gave Katsuki the urge to knead his claws into a blanket like an excited pup, but more than that, it made him want to grab those shoulders, drawn taut and perfect, and bite down just between his neck and collarbone. It made him want to shove him by the small of his back into their bed, just to see how those proud shoulders of his would bunch together to catch his fall.

He exchanged his arms, straightening one out to bend the other, and Katsuki could just hear the beginnings of a groan of relief rumbling in the back of Izuku's throat.

Three weeks was a long time to do nothing aside from try to run away.

Shaking his head to pull himself from his thoughts, Katsuki blinked, refocusing himself on Izuku's face. Or rather, where his face should be. All he could see was the line of his jaw and the still-swollen gland at his throat, where those dark marks had begun to fade. He still didn't have a damn clue what the hell that episode was in Shouto's chamber, and the ongoing thought of it had him chewing into his cheek.

"What're you doing?"

Izuku peeked open an eye, and Katsuki could catch something like mischief in those bright viridian irises as he dipped his chin down. "We're going to spar," he said nonchalantly, lowering his arm so he could instead stretch it across his torso and trap it with his other arm.

Indignation colored his cheeks before Katsuki was aware he was glaring. "No, you're not."

The omega rose a brow. "I'm not?"

"You're not." He confirmed, his grip on his pen tightening. "Omegas don't fight, they don't spar, and they sure as hell don't fight alphas. You'll stay right here, where it's safe for you."

"No."

"_No_?" Katsuki grit his teeth. Izuku regarded him coolly as he twisted his torso around, and he clenched his teeth together at the unconcerned look. Ever since he had seen that _bastard,_ he couldn't be bothered to stay around him at all, and there was none of his usual anxiety or trepidation in his expression.

"We like to repeat each other, don't we?" He commented, and Katsuki felt a vein pop.

"You're not going outside, and you're especially not going outside looking like _that._ You're not going outside to spar, you're not going outside to see some other fuckin' alpha, and you're sure as hell not going outside to go deliberately put yourself in danger." He snapped, a certain pressure beginning to build behind his eyes.

Izuku, infuriatingly calm, bent down, reaching for his toes. "Why?"

He gripped his ankles, pushing his nose between his calves, and Katsuki just about lost his damn mind.

Katsuki was up out of his seat, addressing the back of a head tucked between his legs, because there was no other thing he could do. He couldn't grab him, he couldn't shake him, he couldn't make him understand.

"I'll _tell _you why. You going outside like that would give any alpha the wrong idea, _especially_ smelling unmated, and _especially_ being un-fucking-marked. They would be all over you in a second! You want danger, _that's_ danger! And you're not going to see that fucking alpha, that bastard, because it's improper as all hell, and you're sure as fuck not _fighting _him because that's not what you _do._ I don't know how it is you Midoriyas got it in your heads that omegas can fight, but in case you haven't noticed, you're not built for it. You don't have an instinct for it. You had to fight to build it up but you know it would never be sufficient against a real alpha in a battle. I don't care who or what you are, any omega would be outmatched against an alpha, and I can't afford for you to get hurt!"

He puffed angrily into the mere five feet separating them, and if Izuku could smell the spice and smoke in the air, he made no indication. Instead, he remained in that forward fold for about ten more seconds, and then came up, his hands tracing up his legs with a deliberate slowness. He then extended his hands out to him, blinking. "Could you take these off?"

Shocked, Katsuki stared down at the quirk-suppressing cuffs for a few silent seconds.

"I mean. I figured out how to overwhelm them, but Shouto mentioned the girl who charmed them - Mina? put a lot of work into them." He supplied irreverently, those lashes fluttering, doe-like, at him.

"You weren't listening." Katsuki muttered, disbelieving.

"I was, but not enough to respond. It's a two way street, right?" Izuku's smile was odd, overbright. The corners of his lips pulled too high, his posture was too rigid. "You really aren't listening to me still, so-"

"I'm listening pretty damn well, Izuku!" Katsuki slammed his pen back onto the desk behind him before it could melt. "And I'm trying to _explain_ that you can't fight!"

"Because you can't afford it."

"Because you're too valuable to lose!"

"I'd say the same of my bracers, but those were burned." Izuku said, then thoughtfully tapped his chin. "Destroyed, actually."

"What is _with_ you lately?" Katsuki wanted to pull his hair out in his frustration, but instead just bit down on the inside of his cheek. "You've been acting different since that thing with Ha- Shouto, and you still won't tell me what the hell that was!"

Izuku pulled his hands back from where they had still been invitingly held out, then held them up close to his chest with his fingers splayed out. "You won." He said quietly, "You and your mother won. I'm staying here. The contract is being drawn up. The bonding ceremony is being planned. God knows what will happen to my people, but if your mother holds true to her word, they'll be safe."

"That was never in question-" 

"My mother will have to find a new heir, though. Shou will always have to look over his shoulder, waiting for Mitsuki to give the word to his monster of a father as to his whereabouts. It's likely that a Bakugou force will occupy my territory forever."

"No one mentioned anything about-"

"And I'll be here." He smiled again, and it was strange. Not once has one of his smiles come close to meeting his eyes, but this one didn't even attempt. "I'll be here with you. I've experienced indescribable fear of my own making, paranoia and panic so deep that it's pushed me far beyond what's acceptable for _me_, let alone my _culture._ Terror that _you_ and _your mother_ and _your people _spurned me into making, deliberately."

It was odd. There was no fury or indignation in his tone, but there were locks and chains around his side of their bond. He couldn't tell what he was feeling, but there was a growing lump in his throat as he continued.

"But for the first time in a few weeks, I feel like myself." He added, more softly. He looked down at his hands, then clenched them into fists.

Katsuki swallowed, and the scent of a violent thunderstorm slowly began to rise from Izuku. Lightning and danger and furious rain, rolled into one powerful force. "I feel like me. Not like fear and sedation are the only parts of me that I can recognize. And to be sure, Katsuki-" A spark of green, neon and too bright in Katsuki's room, erupted from Izuku's chest to begin an erratic current of electricity around his body. He stretched his fingers out, and the cuffs around his wrists and hands loosened, no longer the second skin they were designed to be but instead hanging pathetically around his wrists like snakeskin. "I will be going to see the alpha that makes me feel that way."

He rose his gaze up to meet Katsuki's, and in the bright, foxfire color suddenly brightening his eyes, he could feel the hail from Izuku's storm bombarding his body.

What came off of him this time, for the first time in weeks, was _power._ Power with purpose, not just reckless firepower that needed directing. The kind of power that molded and shaped things, places, _people_ into something greater. It was pure potential energy, and it bundled itself so safe and secure and yet so volatile into Izuku. It tightened itself around him like a protective shell, it only needed a directive to _change_.

When Katsuki had first dreamed of him, he remembered, Izuku was ball lightning.

And every subsequent time, he had found him in a storm.

Not _in_ a storm, no. He _was_ the storm. He was its face and its force.

He'd watch the violent hailstorm when he was younger and think there were ways to outpace it. Outrun it, burn his fire brighter and hotter to overwhelm it and conquer it. He'd brought with him the idea that he could cup it in an enchanted bubble, like the ones holding warm fire, for him to carry around with him. Like an ornament, like a charm.

What if it was too powerful to contain?

"Wait," his voice cracked, some desperate note to make Izuku stay. "Wait. Izuku, wait."

The omega turned, looking over his shoulder. The lightning had since dimmed, but his cheekbones were still lit with that same energy.

What if he was too powerful, himself? What if other people saw the same energy in him?

"Let me- let me come with you." He tried, his hands up. "I just- I just want to be there, with you. Please."

Izuku's eyes narrowed, his hand tightened on the doorknob. His side of their bond was heavier, in some ways. It felt fuller, more occupied, but no more open. He didn't know what he was thinking. He hadn't known in awhile.

"Why?" He asked, suspicious. "Why would you want to come?"

Why? Why would he want anything to do with the two of them being together?

"Because I want to-," Katsuki choked on the newfound feeling. "I want to be with you. Even if it's not us talking or even seeing- I just, I want to see-" his hands curled into fists as he stared at the ground, and he willed Izuku to understand.

_I want to see you like this._

_I want to see what you can do._

No. That wasn't accurate. But it was as close as he could come to accurate.

Izuku's brows furrowed, then pushed together, a crease of mistrust. "You want to see?"

Katsuki's head bobbed up and down. "You.. don't know where sparring grounds are, either, so you need someone to show you. An escort."

His jaw tensed, teeth grinding back and forth. Indignation soured that wild scent. "And you would provide one?"

"Shouto isn't supposed to be away from castle grounds, and neither are you. I could stay with you to make sure you weren't disturbed." He breathed, words tripping over his tongue in his haste.

Izuku's weight shifted. "Is this a trap?"

"No! Gods, no! Just- let me fucking- let me do this for you." He insisted, taking a step closer. Izuku mirrored it backwards, his back brushing the door.

_Fuck._ Energy leaked from Izuku's side to ignite and twist around Katsuki's mind, and in the pit of his stomach, agitation, a pure need to move and fight, stirred. It made him breathless, made his irises narrow into excited slits. "I'm saying go do it, go - spar, or whatever. I just want to be there. Just in case."

Just in case.. what? For a second it satiated his alpha to think that maybe he could do those kinds of things, and he could be there, watching his back. Just in case Izuku couldn't see everything, maybe he could be in the eye of the storm.

The expression Izuku gave him wasn't one he could name. He knew enough about sequence his emotions followed, and the first thing that erupted was relief. Happiness. His mouth opened slightly to gape, as usual- and right as he could experience the feeling, he chained it down. Drove pegs into every side, locked it down, tempered it until it was manageable and safe, broke it down so he can examine its pieces.

He pulled suspicion and anger over it like a blanket, used his old paranoia and pulled it around him as if he were nesting. Pulled down that happy balloon until it deflated and nearly popped.

"Why did you change your mind?" Izuku enunciated slowly, destroying the small nugget of reciprocating cheerfulness in Katsuki's chest.

His tongue felt swollen in his mouth, that pent up energy was overwhelming. It filled his limbs, bright and insistent, and he could swear for a second it felt like they would be carried away. "Because," he grit his teeth against it, his heart picking up in his chest and pounding away dangerously. It thrummed over their link, synching and locking with Izuku's own, until the need to burn off the desperate energy was the only thing he could comprehend.

"Does it matter?" He demanded, scared of the answer himself. "You're not gonna listen to my reasoning either way, so just go do what you want. I can't stop you, but I want to make sure you're safe doing it."

There was a ghost of a smile on Izuku's lips. "Omegas don't fight, though."

"Yeah, well you're one of'a kind, and you're testing my damn patience. Let's get the hell out of here."

"Wait, wait!" Izuku's palms went up as Katsuki came forward, his excitement leaving Katsuki breathless.

"Yeah, what-"

"You're not going to fight with him, right? You're not going to start an argument?"

"No, fucking- I'm just going to," Katsuki grit his teeth again, pushing his hands down placatingly. "Sit, or something. Make sure you don't get hurt, and no one interferes or thinks you're a particularly pretty omega-" Izuku's dimming expression cut him off, and he sighed through his nose. "Look. I won't disturb anything, okay?"

"You're just going to sit down and watch us spar?" Izuku's hands suddenly clasped in front of him, his torso bent forward slightly. His chin tilted up, his eyes imploring, and the sudden heat in his face wasn't from anger.

Katsuki tore his eyes away from that - _omegan_ \- posture, ignoring that the swirl of emotion in his chest was almost immediately overtaken by something soft and fond. Where the hell had _that_ come from?

"For the fifteenth time, _yeah_, I'll behave or whatever. Just go get the bastard. Can't stand seeing you s-" He swallowed once more, cutting himself off. "It's not good to be cooped up inside anyway."

"Since when did you c-"

"Look! Let's just go!" Katsuki dragged a hand down his face, shoving down a flare of guilt. "You want to spar, you get to spar. Gods, is this a foreign concept to you Midoriyas? Just go, dammit-"

"Alright, alright, let's - uh. Let's go." Izuku said, awkwardly opening the door. Katsuki didn't miss the twitch of his brows upwards, or the bemused shake of his head as he went.

Katsuki's alpha snapped at him for allowing him to go first, unprotected, while he caught the door behind him to close. And as they walked, passing through the barrier that cut off his hall from the rest of the rambunctious palace, he shifted to put a few inches of distance between them. Just enough so that he was walking half a step in front of him.

Just in case.

Izuku's eyes, on his shoulder, on his back, on his face, were unmistakable. They didn't feel hot, like the glares he received from his mother or subordinates, but they weren't cold either. They were almost clinical. Like he was an animal that needed careful observation, or a military force liable to attack at any moment.

And it pissed him _off._

Shouto, he looked at him like he was a partner. A trusted equal, one he could sleep next to and feel like he was sleeping with an eye open. And him, he looked at him like he had to anticipate his next move. Like it were a game of chess, and losing would be catastrophic.

Izuku's posture eased when the bastard opened the door, and Katsuki's claws dug into his palm.

"Izu-" Shouto's eyes rested on Katsuki, and the pleasant eye-smile he had for him froze into placid, neutral ice. "-ku. What's going on?"

"Oh!" Izuku laughed sheepishly. Was that the first time he'd seen him laugh? "We're going. Katsuki is showing us to the training grounds, and he'll make sure no one interrupts."

Shouto's gaze traveled up from the omega up to Katsuki, considering. "He's chaperoning."

"What? No! Of course not, I mean- we don't know where the place is, and it takes the interference out of the equation-"

"So he's chaperoning." He repeated dryly.

"You got a problem with that?" Katsuki cut in before Izuku could reply. "I mean, you could just not go. I could just go on a damn walk if it's that much of a problem, asshole."

Next to him, Izuku's teeth clicked as he clenched his jaw shut. Shouto merely arched a brow. "After promising him?"

Katsuki's hands jammed their way into his pockets, his head turning away. "You need me to be able to do this, smartass. You two leave grounds together, you'll get delivered back here with a guard and a new line added to that contract our mothers are putting together. So get your shit, we're going."

"Yes, of course. One moment." Shouto blinked at him, slowly. He turned over his shoulder, looking over into his room, and then looked back at Katsuki, his expression equally as neutral. "Okay. I have everything."

Izuku pursed his lips and bit down, forcing the corners of his lips down as well to hold back a laugh. Shouto remained unfazed, but Katsuki watched a pale red tinge begin to haunt his vision. "Wonderful." He said, baring his teeth in a terrifying grin. "Let's get going."

The other alpha blinked again. "Certainly. Lead the way."

Katsuki scowled, turning on his heel to glare at the floor as they walked back down the hall. He could feel Izuku's tentative amusement, little dim sparks on his side of the bond, and pursed his lips against the rising anger that tasted like iron on his tongue.

The two behind him didn't talk, but one glance in their direction was more than enough to know they could communicate without words. Shouto's affect remained the same, and Izuku, more expressive than ever, gestured with his hands, stuck his tongue out, and crossed his eyes.

His conspiratorial giggles ate away at the breathless energy he had mere minutes before, opening a dark hole where it once was. Katsuki's sour scent hit his own nostrils as they passed down the hill to curl downwards towards the training grounds, and if the two behind him noticed, they gave no indication. Izuku had launched into a story about one of the guards, and the recounting of the beta that got too grabby about what was his ground his nerves down further.

He inhaled slowly, inclining his chin to rise above the rest of the pungent alpha-beta scent, and tried to pull in the trees nearby and the goings-on of the city below.

Restlessness, he noted immediately. The people were moving with a certain agitation, gossip was less _oh-did-you-hear-about-that _and more _you-wouldn't-believe_. They had seen Queen Inko, her procession, her guards, when they entered the city, and had stared at her with the same wild look they gave all omegas. They had glanced from the two tall betas flanking her, her entourage behind her, and watched the lack of litter and the queen's bare shoulders. They thought of what it would be to get a taste, but then the queen's calm gaze had rested upon them, and her hands linked behind her back as they always did. She clasped those bracers and smiled, as an enlightened woman to filthy heathens, her gentle, kind smile.

_The audacity,_ Katsuki had overheard. _A reigning omega pretender._

_It was only a matter of time before she got knocked down off her throne. It's only the way of the world._

_They certainly are freaks of nature, huh? What they've done to their omegas, poor things.._

_Lucinium, still? How barbaric._

They saw her exiting the castle, leaving whenever she wanted, roaming from stall to stall to sample their wares. There was no detectable scent of distress on her, and yet no one could solve the mystery of her tranquility. A path was made wherever she went, an almost permeable barrier of eyes in lieu of flesh, and when they looked at her it wasn't the reverent, adoring look they gave Queen Rei. Awe, disgust, fear, respect- Katsuki knew his people, and he knew they had no idea what the hell to make of her. A fallen angel, a god? A precious keepsake? What kind of aberration was Queen Inko?

They had seen her observe posturing, fights, bartering, discussions that easily got heated, and pull a stretch of fabric from the inside of her bracer. Without disturbing, without intervening, she tied the pale green fabric around her nose and mouth, and smiled with her eyes.

More than that, they had seen Mitsuki at her side every day that she had been present outside the castle. They had seen her reach to touch an arm, her upper back, to guide as an alpha would an omega, and seen it cut short with a serene but utterly cutting look back. The queen's smile would dim in brightness, but minutes later it would return in full force as she insisted Koko look somewhere else, experience some other thing.

"Here, right?" Shouto cut into his thoughts with a rude, offhand call. A hand immediately swung around to push his shoulder, Katsuki catching an admonishing _tsh-tsh-tsh_ like they were students caught talking in the middle of a lecture.

He whipped his head around to glare, but knew the scent of loose earth and hay meant they had arrived. "Yeah, here. This big enough, or is it gonna be a problem?"

Izuku turned his head, scanning over the clearing as he tried to school his giggly smile into seriousness. The grounds had definitely been well worn with all manner of quirks, and the poor trees it backed up to had evidence of damage. They were singed, they were beaten, and Katsuki was sure if they looked hard enough they would find blood somewhere in the foliage. But the ground they stood on was good to train on. It was soft and forgiving, but -

An indulgent thought suddenly arose that Izuku didn't _need_ forgiving.

And that thought was definitely found too close to their connection, given Izuku's head snapping at light speed back to stare at Katsuki. He averted his gaze immediately, despite it being distinctly _un_alpha, and made mockingly grand gesture with his arm. "Well?"

The two Midoriyas exchanged a look, one with Izuku crossing his arms and inclining his chin. Katsuki's instinctive irritation swelled up even though the look wasn't even directed at him, but Shouto just found a teeny, tiny smile back.

"It'll do." Was Shouto's mild assessment, and Katsuki gritted his teeth at the next assault on his frazzled nerves.

Amusement wafted his way, tasting like ice crunching on his tongue, and Katsuki's growl started up in his throat while he threw a scathing glare at the other alpha. Shouto met his gaze, and though nothing was really in his expression, it made the ice in his mouth somehow jump from solid to a hot vapor.

"_Shou._" Izuku scolded him gently, pushing a hand into his shoulder with enough force to make him stumble back. "It's a good thing. Come on."

Shouto made a small scoffing noise as he trailed away, his shoes scuffing into the dirt to get a gauge on how much give it had. But Izuku lingered there where he was, the fingers of one hand absently pulling and playing with the fingertips of the other.

He had two and a half weeks to get to know Izuku's anxious stances. That is, when it was at its peak. Before Shouto.

He defaulted to his hands clasped in front of his body, and it reminded him of the stance he had taken when addressing his mother. It was a botched version of his soldier's posture, just a defensive thing that curled his body inwards while affording him no protection when his mind instinctively looked to Katsuki for it. Sometimes, his arms would go behind his body, but it was never long before they came back to protect his belly.

Playing with his fingers usually meant he was irritated, or angry, but couldn't verbalize it. Or knew better than to verbalize whatever he was feeling. It was a stance that usually preceded what his mother called _meltdowns,_ like he was just an out of control pup.

Katsuki wasn't sure what he believed.

But Izuku met his gaze, and it was a different dimension of anxiety. It wasn't tinged with paranoia, but excitement.

"What?" He tilted his head ever so slightly to the right, eyes narrowed. "There something wrong? You wanna back out?"

Izuku's hands immediately dropped to his sides. "Hu- _what_? No, not at all! I was just wondering.." His brows twitched together, and he looked back to the trees. "Where are- where are you going to be?"

"What does it matter? I'm just gonna be sitting on the edge just in case someone thinks the damn apocalypse is coming. You better hope my mother doesn't see."

His heart near skipped a beat at the sheer amount of energy sapping through his limbs at the mere mention of the queen. But Izuku rolled his shoulders back against it, a powerful roll to rise his posture, and again his alpha licked its chops at another would-be challenge. _Shut the fuck up, _he snarled at it, glancing down to Izuku's snapping fingers.

"What happens if she does?" The corners of Izuku's lips pulled up humorlessly, and Katsuki had to wonder if he'd ever see one of his smiles touch those stupidly expressive eyes of his. "We both go down to the dungeons? Is this against the law?"

"If it were against the law, you better fuckin' believe you wouldn't be doing it. I said it once, and I guess I'm going to have to say it a million damn times. I'm your protector, and I _won't_ be your prosecutor. Even if that means keeping you from breaking the law." Katsuki rolled his eyes. "She'll be upset and probably talk my ear off until the ceremony."

"Ceremony." Izuku echoed softly, and Katsuki ground his teeth together. There was a note of hopelessness in his voice, and his alpha changed its tune so damn quick it made him want to smack it upside the head when its orders went from _bite_ to _hold._

"Whatever, it's far enough away - and being pushed back even further by whatever our moms are cooking up - to not really be a thing to get all up in a tizzy about. That hag'll have her up into the early hours of the morning deciding what color ribbons peasants'll be wearing on their left shoe or some shit." Katsuki muttered quickly, then repeated "Whatever. Just- go spar."

"Are y-"

"Oh my gods! I'm literally giving you what you want and you still have to question me every step of the fucking way, huh? That what we're doing here?" He demanded. "Just shut up and do what makes you ha-"

"I am!" Izuku protested, eyes wide and bewildered, feet twitching to life to bring him backwards. "R-right. Okay. I'm going."

"You better," Katsuki huffed, turning on his heel to walk towards the edge of the clearing, where grass met the earth, muttering to himself the whole way. There was an old, old tree that provided ample shade, and he threw himself down, crossing his legs and jamming his elbows into his knees.

Asshole.

And all the more asshole for making him witness this. Izuku and the other bastard were working out the sedentary kinks in their muscles, chattering away, while Katsuki's nerves were firing away at the sight of his omega, _defenseless, _about to fight another alpha. He should stop this. He should end this right now, before his mother got up to the grounds to scream in his ear or Izuku was hurt even more. The entire idea was stupid, literally everyone knew that omegas don't fight! They were much too precious to be scratched, let alone fought!

But Shouto was going to fight him like he was a commodity, nothing more than another person, nothing special at all. He sized up Izuku like a student, lingering on his stretches, instructing him towards something he had missed. And in turn, Izuku was all provocative smile and teases, a hand jabbing Shouto's shoulder or side as they warmed up, a correction thrown out between lifetime partners.

He should stop this.

And then Shouto, pulling himself up from a stretch, languid and loose like a night-time predator shaking off his daytime nap, turned to look over his shoulder. He scanned up the path that led to the castle, and then his gaze rested on Katsuki, neutral and calm. He could pick up the mint of his neutral scent, along with the somehow restless scent of Izuku's fresh leaves, but he watched his face, waiting for something. _Make me cancel this whole thing, dick._

And Shouto _smiled._ Nothing big, nothing like the smiles he gave Izuku, but just the smallest upward tick at one corner of his mouth.

Katsuki smelled coal and cinnamon, and very deliberately sent _Kick his ass before I do._ in Izuku's direction.

_You're insufferable,_ came Izuku's reply, without a bite but definitely tinged with exasperation.

And then- it started again. It was like the wind shifted, immediately indicating a cold front that would bring a violent storm. Izuku's sun-warmed leaves got blown away in the tempest, leaving behind earth assaulted by rain, humidity, and something wild. That erratic current streaked up around his legs, hugged his waist, wrapped around his chest and arms and enveloped him in unnatural light.

He was stunning. Not ethereal, like he had seen omegas to be, but something else entirely. Something earthly, but less defined.

Shouto murmured something he couldn't catch, and suddenly that energy flared. Became brighter, more turbulent, until Izuku was tiny star. He kept _pushing_, his side of the link became heavier and heavier as more and more energy poured into it. Katsuki's heart was strung along, pulled into the volatile current until he was nearly gasping with it. It gave him the same feeling - the same restless, need-to-fight energy, not unlike the one his alpha beat him over the head with but less.. dark. He couldn't place the exact difference, but it made him want to bare his teeth and stand all the same.

It peaked too quickly, a blaze that escaped Izuku's control for the briefest second. It shot Katsuki's heart into overdrive, and he was immediately digging his claws into the bark of the tree to stand and escape the sudden black hole that was Izuku's side of their bond. It weighed more than both of them combined, and was only getting heavier.

There was a snarl, loud, grating, and determined. Katsuki immediately honed in on Shouto, but it was Izuku who was stiffening irritably while stifling that power of his down. He wrapped chains around it, gripped the metal with those absurdly strong hands and _pulled_ it back. The force of it sent him forward too, two stumbling steps towards him to try and help.

The power was a storm, but Izuku was a hurricane. His willpower clamped down on it, hard, and then Katsuki's buzzing heartbeat finally was allowed the beginnings of a reprieve. He shoved it down bodily, pushed it and compressed it until it had no choice but to yield under him. It collapsed in on itself like a dying star, and then it came back to Izuku's hand, a disobedient dog with an old habit of loyalty to it master.

"Seven and a half." Izuku murmured, and _Fifty-five_, he whispered. It was definitely tinged with something disappointed and yet determined, and Katsuki, braced against his tree, exclaimed _On what scale? _

What kind of power _was _this? What kind of power spiralled out of control, and what power did Izuku force to yield under him?

Izuku looked back at him, mental locks and chains falling around his head and barring him access to more information. All he said, instead, was _Sorry about that._

Sorry? Sorry about what? He must know the joyride that power took his body for, otherwise he wouldn't be apologizing, but why say _sorry_ about it?

He had to put a stop to this. That power that Izuku had - it was too dangerous, it would put him in danger time and time again. It would make him want to keep fighting, it would put him in situations where he couldn't win. It would overwhelm his body, it would tear him apart, just like what he felt mere seconds ago.

He could see it as clear as a day, the path this kind of power could take him down. He could see it, volatile and twitching, as it pushed Izuku's body to its limits and forced his heart to exhaust all of its beats. The battle he would be in, the sword that would go clean through his chest since he fought with no real weapon. He was supposed to be _protected,_ and yet here Katsuki was standing by, watching this horrible, terrifying energy surge around him. Here he was, standing by and letting this alpha, one he had enough data on to know to be dangerous at very least, and he was saying _by all means! Fuck him up!_

His legs were carrying him forward, his mouth was open to call this stupid charade off, but Shouto had already said "Ten" before he could get a word in.

It was like a chain reaction. Izuku had taken a step back, and then pushed up into the air, his body making an elegant arc so he could land about ten feet away. Shouto immediately fell back into a defensive stance, his foot drawing back and out as he lowered his body closer to the ground.

Alarm twisted in Katsuki's stomach, his lip curling in worry. An alpha's fighting style versus an omega, he knew from incredibly outdated drill curricula, didn't rely on speed. Omegas were quick to startle and even quicker to run: they were built for bursts of speed, not sustained endurance. Alphas waited and allowed themselves to be damaged while letting omegas tire themselves out, whereas omegas aimed to either outrun or end the fight quickly.

But Midoriyan fighting style was different. Significantly more unpredictable. Their omegas fought like alphas and their alphas fought like betas and really, no one could ever really pin their fighting style on any of the genders. They didn't drill like regular armies did, and even with their limited resources, they were like a cockroach that just wouldn't die. There was no way to tell who would be waiting in those little bastions of rebels, no way to prepare.

_Crack!_ Izuku's slippered foot came down hard, aiming for Shouto's shoulder. The alpha blocked with more than enough time to spare, even if it was difficult for Katsuki's eyes to track the unforgiving path of his leg downward, and he gripped the expensive fabric of his leggings to throw him back.

His body flowed outwards, the next movement like water as his foot hit the ground. Ice erupted from the earth, only a few feet tall but sturdy enough to redirect Izuku's momentum as Shouto threw him into the steep curve. He collided with the block, his shoulder hitting before the rest of them, but Izuku didn't feel pain. He felt pure _adrenaline_ as he scrabbled back to avoid the wall of flames aimed his way, collecting himself to roll his weight back and push back to his feet.

"Left reaction time is down," Izuku called, as if a huge bruise wouldn't be on his shoulder for a few days.

Shouto didn't reply as the ice broke apart, his lips pursed as he lunged to grab Izuku's undershirt. Izuku knocked him back with a swift palm strike to the center of his chest, and when Shouto fell back, his body weight shifted, his foot dug into the ground. Katsuki swore he saw the current travel into the ground, rooting him in place so he could balance and kick above his own head-

And Shouto's head was just far back enough so that his heel didn't connect with his chin. He staggered back, crouching as Izuku's foot came down, only for his other leg the make a sharp, rapid arc in a half moon upwards to connect with his shoulder. It was too quick for him this time, and the sound it made would make a seasoned soldier wince.

Not Izuku, who suddenly was hopping on one foot. Phantom pain streaked up Katsuki's heel, distinctly feeling wrong and out of place, as Izuku groaned, pulling his knee up to his chest so he could cradle it. Shouto rolled to the ground unceremoniously, but there was no retaliatory move.

"Not my fault these shoes are useless," he could hear Izuku's side of the conversation and feel the embarrassment burning his cheeks. He used his poor injured foot to prod at Shouto's prone form, and then- "Hey! We're both out of practice, your aim is off too."

Shouto's hand suddenly lashed out to grab Izuku's ankle, and he was down too. Izuku's elbow hit the ground first, and then they were rolling in the dirt like pups. Izuku let out a battle cry over his indignant giggles, his hands shoving at Shouto's shoulders and face while Shouto could only roll and try to fit his knees over his hips to still him. Izuku wouldn't allow that for a second, and he yelled "This is the _worst_ warm up!" while wriggling to get out of his grip.

And Katsuki watched the scene, still standing, still two steps into the soft dirt, unnoticed. His hands balled in fists, his face set in a furious scowl, with dour fury steaming off of him like vapor coming off a lake on a hot day. A hand clapping down on his shoulder barely drew him out of his thoughts, and even then it took Eijirou's "_Hey. _You in there?" to get him to reply.

"What?" He demanded sourly, crossing his arms in front of him he watched Izuku fucking _yip _underneath Shouto.

Eijirou looked towards the two Midoriyas tumbling and play wrestling, then back to his longtime best friend, and squinted a little wince of sympathy. "What's going on, man?"

Katsuki pulled himself back somewhat in response to the comforting, crisp scent he was being sent, fresh and familiar, but still huffed out a hot breath of irritation. "He wanted to spar." He muttered by way of explanation.

"And you let him?" The hand on his shoulder slipped down to land on Eijirou's thigh, although when Katsuki was able to tear his eyes from the scene - Shouto pushing Izuku up playfully and saying to be serious, Izuku replying that he was always serious and this was just his plan - he paused to scan his expression.

The other alpha seemed more surprised than anything, even as Katsuki could feel a thousand words in his throat begging to build up and make their way to his tongue to justify what he was doing. Make it seem like a farce and show Izuku he shouldn't be fighting, or maybe explain to Eijirou what he had felt earlier. There had to be something he could say to make this seem like something it wasn't, but all Katsuki could come up with was "-He was going to. Whatever I said doesn't fuckin' matter either way."

Eijirou's brows shot up, his red eyes reflecting the revived electricity Izuku was suddenly giving off. "He.. sounds like an impressive omega."

What? "The hell does that mean?" Katsuki snapped. "He's _Izuku,_ there's nothing not impressive about him-"

"Willpower included." Eijirou cut in mildly. "When's the last time he tried to escape this week?"

"He.. hasn't tried this week." Katsuki admitted after a pause, somewhat sullenly.

Eijirou was watching the two curiously, not a hint of disgust or worry in his expression. There was more interest than anything, drawing his brows upwards as his eyes followed Shouto's arm as he threw up a wall of ice. They then went to Izuku as he threw a punch through it, shattering the ice like glass and earning a smile from both Shouto and himself.

Something curled in his stomach, something hot and possessive. "What the hell is that look?" He hissed, snapping his head in Eijirou's direction to glare at the impressed upturn of his lips. "Why are you looking at him like that?"

The alpha stepped back, his hands up placatingly. "Hey- hey! Take it easy, man. I'm not interested or anything! I'm mated, remember?"

"Yeah, with someone you refuse to tell anyone about." Katsuki snarled, fanning the calming pheromones away with a snap of his arm across his body.

"Dude- okay, look. I just think it's nice that he's doing better! He's been miserable for weeks, alright, I saw him outside the palace once and it looked like he was-" He paused when Katsuki's glare became intense, but continued, more quietly. "-really upset. Especially after Hanta managed to catch him. And I heard about what happened in your r-"

"_Look._" Katsuki gritted his teeth, something about Eijirou's gently insistent tone rubbing him the wrong way. His alpha snapped its teeth at the idea that he couldn't provide for Izuku's happiness, claws resting on the inside of his ribs and tearing. "He's having to adjust. I'm just- humoring him, alright, while he figures out that this is the better way to do shit. Midoriyas brainwashed him with that poison and those stupid ideas of theirs, it'll take awhile to figure it out."

Sucking on the inside of his cheek, Eijirou looked for a split second in the Midoriyas' direction, just in time to hear Shouto to call "Thirty" like an officer calling drill. A curtain of flames blocked Izuku's attempt at a punch, even as Katsuki could feel a renewed bolt of adrenaline and power surge through his limbs.

Something passed through Eijirou's expression that he couldn't place, but he was still smiling when he looked back at Katsuki. "I'm just saying. Maybe if you humored him more, he'd be happier."

"And what! Let him join our army? Be a guard? Put him at the head of espionage?"

"Isn't that where he was, man? You think a trained spy, from one of the most dangerous alpha-omega pairs-" Eijirou raised his hand at Katsuki hot ash scent, "- in the Midoriya kingdom is gonna just roll over because you and the queen tell him to? You can't just tell him that this is better for him when the only reason he's here and not telling Queen Inko every bit of our strategy is because_ politics_. He doesn't believe in fated bonds! Why would he, when they've figured out a way to imitate them themselves?"

"That's perverse," Katsuki hissed. "Destined mates are way older than all of that bullshit that they come up with there. And coming from people who deliberately fuck with heat cycles and kill their second genders with poison? I don't think they're even _stable._"

"Their population is." Eijirou pointed out softly.

"By going against nature! It's fucked is what it is, and I'll drag my omega out of there by his hair if need be because what's happening there is sick!" He snapped. "That's my _job_."

Seemingly had enough with the conversation, Eijirou stepped back, putting his hands up and tilting his head slightly to the side. He averted his eyes, fresh scent dampened with something a little sour. "Alright, alright. I'm just trying to say.. maybe you should talk to him instead of humoring him."

"He's my _mate._ I'll spend the rest of my life humoring him." Katsuki skulked back to sit down against the wide breadth of the tree, allowing him to concede the argument. "Besides. The sooner he gets used to it-" He growled as Shouto's heel slammed into Izuku's side, taking his breath away, "-the better."

Eijirou sat down beside him, his mouth carefully shut, but he brushed their shoulders together to scent him comfortingly. Katsuki allowed the appeasement, his teeth grating together as his worked his jaw forwards and back. Meanwhile, Izuku spun in midair, his leg coming down from above in a devastating swing that Shouto caught with his forearm. He didn't anticipate the force behind the kick, because though his arm stopped the initial blow, Izuku kept it moving, throwing Shouto's defense down and pushing him back.

When they both landed, Shouto off balance and Izuku still swinging, the omega planted both feet in the ground, only to take a step forward and abruptly pivot on his heel. Izuku's body turned, then came around like a whip, his heel hooking back and slamming into Shouto's chest.

Shouto went down, rolling across the loose dirt, and Izuku was on him like a big cat taunting their prey. "Your left arm was sloppy, and you didn't compensate for it with your other arm." Izuku could be heard saying breathlessly, "Are you done?"

"You're having difficulty regulating, because that isn't thirty," Shouto retorted, slapping a palm to the ground. A line of ice made its way to Izuku, who yelped and tried to jump out of its path. It followed him easily, then erupted, ice casing around his ankles so he lost his balance and then traveled from his legs to his chest to catch his fall.

He struggled in the ice as Shouto hauled himself to his feet, footsteps making little divots in the earth. A bolt of panic in Izuku's stomach had Katsuki almost on his feet, and Eijirou quickly barred him with his arm.

"Let me go!" Katsuki hissed, only for Eijirou, eyes trained on the two of them, to shake his head.

"See what he does." He said softly as Izuku struggled in earnest, shifting and twisting.

"See what he does?! That scared him-"

"And he can work his way out!" Eijirou insisted, and Shouto stalked closer, Izuku visibly bracing himself as the ice crawled up his chest towards his shoulders. The alpha slowly closed the distance between them, the animal in Katsuki's chest dragging his claws down the sides of its cage furiously, and he could see the spark of Izuku's indignant glare from miles away.

He raised a hand, and a crack in Izuku's mental fortress told him he was stalling for time, waiting to bite a finger.

But Shouto's index finger raised delicately, and then shot out, quick as a snake, and tapped the very tip of Izuku's nose.

"I'm tired, Izuku." He said, just within Katsuki's hearing range, and Izuku's face softened to a melted butter consistency immediately. "I don't think I can keep sparring. Let's be done for the day."

He bobbed his head a few times, nearly stumbling as the ice fell. Shouto caught his hand, and Izuku's smile was intimate when he stabilized himself. "Me too."

Shouto paused before turning around, just to look at him. "And you forgot how to break out of ice and panicked." He said dryly, the calm assessment he was giving him making Izuku stiffen in surprise. Something shameful arose in his chest, but he was looking beyond him when he turned.

His eyes rested on Eijirou, and instead of jumping suspiciously like Katsuki thought he would, Izuku's expression broke into a tentative smile. Eijirou raised his hand to wave, earning a dark look from Katsuki, but called a "Hey!" out to him.

Izuku, energized once again, gave Shouto's hand a placating squeeze while raising his other hand too. "Kirishima," he called back, pulling the now placid faced alpha in behind him. "What're you doing here?"

Eijirou pushed himself up to stand, smiling down at him almost indulgently. Katsuki refused the hand offered to him and stood up himself, unable to stop himself from almost bitterly looking over his omega. Sweat clung to his brow, dampening the curls framing his face and making some of his hair cling to his neck. His posture was tense, as it always was, but his limbs moved like well-oiled hinges instead of stiff boards as he worked through the remnants of his energy. Katsuki knew he liked to keep in motion, regardless of the situation, so he watched him shift from one foot to the other, swing his arms from one cooldown stretch to another, look from one alpha to another.

Assessing. He was happier, but he was still assessing, as always.

"Just passing through, but I saw Katsuki and thought I'd stop by." Eijirou grinned, his smile sharkish but kind.

Izuku lit up a little, obviously not worried about word spreading. "Katsuki brought us out here, it was nice."

Katsuki stiffened the second his name was mentioned, sending a suspicious look in Izuku's direction. But Izuku wasn't looking at him, and Eijirou rested an elbow against the tree as he asked "Yeah? How did you get him to do that?"

"He just took some convincing." He shrugged haphazardly, confusing Katsuki further. "Besides, exercise is good for us."

Omegas. He meant omegas, Katsuki realized as he caught himself staring appreciatively at the easy roll of his strong shoulders or taking a longer breath than usual to take in more of his scent. Post fight adrenaline and worked muscles smelled _good_ on him, it made him smell healthy and robust, totally unlike how he had been the past few weeks in the castle. His color was high in his cheeks, his arms had a thin sheen of sweat. He could even hear the breathlessness in his voice, and _fuck._

He wondered if he looked like that after a good fuck.

By the time Katsuki was paying attention to the conversation again, Shouto had stopped hovering over Izuku and was now watching Eijirou a little less warily. Eijirou prodded him about his conditioning, asking if omegas were trained differently, and to his surprise- Izuku nodded.

He glanced Katsuki's way, then jumped into an explanation. Omegas had a natural predisposition to speed and agility, and yes, those natural abilities were honed and trained, but conditioning was focused on what the body they were training lacked. Betas were given a multi-disciplined training program so that if a particular skill arose, they would be able to pursue it. Alphas' training was dedicated to evening the difference between themselves and an omega, just as an omega's training was dedicated to settling the same score.

Endurance, strength, staying power. The things he had seen in Shouto and Izuku's spar- things he had associated with him in the first place, were things he had clawed through hell to obtain.

"Spar me." Katsuki said suddenly, the world snapping back into focus when he tasted the challenge on his tongue.

Eijirou, to his left, blinked in surprise. "Huh? Who, man?"

"Izuku." Katsuki narrowed his eyes at the omega, unaware of the sudden awkwardness in the air. "Let's go."

Izuku worried the inside of his cheek, the relaxation in his posture drying up and stiffening. There was a subtle glow in his eyes as he looked from his face to his balled up fists and the way he was drawing up his height, and almost instinctively, Izuku's chin raised.

He met his gaze steadily, and Katsuki wished he could smack some sense into whatever the hell he was feeling. He was equal parts infuriated by the challenge in Izuku's expression and intrigued and energized, but Izuku held up a hand.

"If," he stipulated, never breaking eye contact, "you can catch me."

That dare filled the air, but before Katsuki could lunge for him, Eijirou winced, hands up. "I.. don't know if that's a good idea, man. If someone caught you, they definitely wouldn't be happy at all to know who you were and that Izuku's an-"

"We'll be fine," Izuku said cheerfully, looking to a suspiciously silent Shouto. He cut Eijirou off too, a break in custom that had both alphas looking to each other, but while Katsuki looked exasperated, Eijirou was amused.

What the fuck was his deal, anyway?

"What's your stopping point?" Katsuki asked, shaking the thought away. "First blood? Midoriyas go to blood, right?"

Izuku _snorted_, his laughter sending shocks from Katsuki's chest to his stomach. It's not that it was cute - fuck that, it wasn't cute at all. But it had a note of mischief in it, and the next look he gave Shouto was nothing if not impishly amused.

"We stop when someone taps out, Katsuki." Izuku said, his smile borderline provocative.

What the fuck.

"Blood is too circumstantial. You can draw blood landing wrong, and it teaches soldiers the wrong thing."

What the _fuck. _

"What's it teach them?" Katsuki asked, eyes catching on the near confrontational curve of his lips despite everything in him saying what he was doing was a near prosecutable offense.

Izuku took a long moment sizing him up, dipping his chin to glance once more at Shouto and then back at him. "It teaches them that the fight ends with an injury, and they need to know how to adapt."

_What the _fuck. _And omegas are taught that?_

He didn't miss a beat. "Yes. We are."

There was a surety to his voice that struck home, like a deep, low chord in Katsuki's belly. The kind of confidence that was incredibly unomegan, but seated itself well within Izuku. He was an unstoppable force once again, and it took his breath away.

Katsuki swallowed, and it traveled down his throat too slowly. "No quirks. Hand to hand. First one to tap out loses."

Izuku shifted back and forth, energy building right back up. Katsuki could feel it. "Okay. Let's go."

What the fuck.

He brushed shoulders with Shouto cheerfully as he turned, and Katsuki was helpless to do anything but follow behind, watching Izuku's arms stretch out to his left, then his right. Shouto, when he passed, was expressionless, but his scent was.. overwhelmingly neutral, as if he were having to stay calm.

Take that, asshole. Katsuki would smile if he wasn't breaking the law.

Izuku led him to the middle of the grounds, his movements fluid and loose. He moved like it was a sure thing that he would win, as if this bit were a formality.

He moved like an alpha when he was confident and calm, Katsuki realized. But not the broad, swinging movements - no. He didn't move like an alpha, he _carried _himself like one. He carried himself a lot like Eijirou, who didn't boast his strength and power with his scent and movement. He didn't have to, often, because he was an easily recognizable face. But his strength was a given, it didn't have to fight through the din to be heard.

It was just- there.

And Izuku's strength was just as present. His scent was still utterly wild, something sated combined with something ferocious. A hailstorm and a forest fire, all in one, and when he stopped at the middle, near dead center, and he almost smiled at him. It wasn't quite the upturn of his lips that Katsuki yearned for, but the smile was in his eyes and absolutely laden with something roguish.

He was up to something. Or maybe this is just what Izuku looked like when he was doing something he enjoyed that he really shouldn't, like pups look like when they steal sweets from their parents.

"No quirks, hand to hand. We stop when you give up, right?" Izuku asked, drawing back so he was about ten paces in front of him.

Katsuki's alpha snapped at the bait, teeth clicking eagerly. "That won't happen."

He grinned, cheeky and bright.

And then he was gone. He turned so quickly Katsuki could barely track the movement, his feet pounding the earth as he damn near hit the treeline before Katsuki could move. The top of his head bobbed up and down, reminding him of a deer, as he streaked with impossible speed towards the edge of the grounds.

For a second, Katsuki listened to their link, looking for that power of his. There was no answering bright surge of power, like he suspected of the cheeky fucker, just adrenaline and the bubbly feeling of a grin, and it reached down, touching the quietly sitting animal waiting for orders.

And then Katsuki was in motion, the edges of what he could see receding into blackness as the energy from Izuku's side of their bond surged down to his legs. Their surroundings fell out of focus, just a blur of green and yellow and brown that fell into the darkness in the borders of what he could see.

But then there was Izuku, in sharp detail. He could see the bounce of each loose curl, the shine of the sweat that still hadn't dried on his shoulders, the leggings hugging the muscles of his thighs. The spring that started from those powerful thighs and rocketed down to his feet, the distance he covered with each sprinting step. He was built to run, built to outpace predators and slip through their claws like a snake.

And once again, Katsuki's claws itched to sink into his shoulders and hold him still, hold him _close._ Make that smart mouth of his yield under his own, hold that powerful body to his chest and feel it submit.

Holding him as he had, those first few days, was a battle in of itself. Izuku was stock still, angry and hard. The only relief he had from the overwhelming urge was in those mornings when they woke up, finding Izuku's neutral sunshine and warm leaves scent curled quietly under his nose like the head resting against his chest.

It hadn't happened since he had found Shouto. Even in his sleep he would shy away from Katsuki's tentative touch, even if it was just to brush his bangs from his face or tuck the blanket closer to his chin, and he had to wonder why the fuck Izuku was suddenly humoring him now when he was threatening actual harm to him.

The omega suddenly pivoted left, turning on a dime with a quick adjustment in his feet. He was aiming for the trees, where he could easily outpace Katsuki, but Katsuki was getting too close for his liking, and he clearly turned to throw him off.

He knew Izuku could weave through trees and undergrowth without a care in the world. He could remember tracking the top of his silvery hair over an arrowhead.

He had to stop him before he got there.

Katsuki nearly stumbled as his feet thoughtlessly tried to carry him in Izuku's exact path, but he forced them forward, his legs eating up thirty feet before Izuku could realize he was being flanked instead of tailed. He threw a glance over his shoulder, that same neon glow in his eyes, and _laughed._

Just the way Izuku looked at him made him think he knew what he was thinking all along. There was no smugness to his tone, but it was bright and exhilarated, and barely breathless at all.

He let them run until Katsuki was nearly parallel with him, but just as Katsuki turned close the distance between them, Izuku twisted on the ball of his foot. His body didn't careen forward like it should, it just twisted, redirecting the energy to turn right in Katsuki's direction.

"Huh-" He barely got the word out before he was driving his foot into the earth to stop himself, and Izuku was bolting for the space he formerly occupied.

Stunned, he almost didn't move in time. He only had a few seconds, seconds he knew would be halved if he used an inch of that wild power's strength. But seconds nonetheless that Izuku didn't account for when Katsuki caught himself, forcing his legs to carry him backwards and his hand fist tightly in Izuku's undershirt.

Izuku kept them both going, wrenching Katsuki's arm back painfully but causing the omega to stumble with a startled cry of his own as he was dragged back by Katsuki's weight. They jerked together, Izuku's arms reaching out to catch himself on something that wasn't there, and Katsuki's claws tearing holes into the flimsy fabric of the garment.

Somewhere, in the frenzy, Katsuki's hand was wrenched from Izuku's shirt as Izuku threw his body weight over him. His hands came down on his shoulders, pushing him into the dirt, and Katsuki threw his knee into his side to try and throw him off.

Izuku hissed back, claws digging into his shoulders in a sloppy pin, but Katsuki was rolling too, his knee hitting the ground next as he straddled Izuku's waist. A hand was suddenly in his hair, pulling his head down, pushing his chin to his chest and shoving his torso backwards, and then his hips bucked up and to the side, trying to throw him off.

Reeling, Katsuki threw himself forward with Izuku's momentum, catching the hand aiming a swipe of its claws at his cheek with a snarl. On instinct alone, he drove it to the ground beside Izuku's head, his other hand reaching for Izuku's wrist when a fist came swinging towards his jaw. It was sloppy, the force now directed into his hand fumbling when it connected with his neck.

But he grabbed his hand around his knuckles as Izuku struggled, his grip tenuous but tightening as he snapped "Hey."

His hips went back up, a sharp buck that made him almost lose his balance, and Katsuki shifted his grip to hold around Izuku's wrist. "_Hey_!"

Too low, because when he finally stilled, he cringed, his hand working and shifting. Without noticing, Katsuki's hand traveled up higher, now cupping where his wrist broadened into the heel of his palm. "Hey. Caught you, asshole."

Izuku puffed out a breath wordlessly, his chin rising as he shot an irate look towards the sky. It pushed his sweaty locks out of his face, putting his throat on display in a way that was no way submissive, but agitated.

He assumed Katsuki wouldn't do anything, didn't he? Presumptuous bastard.

And then he lowered his chin once more, staring back at him challengingly. His eyes narrowed, brows coming together slightly as he tested Katsuki's hold around his wrists. Katsuki squeezed them - carefully, more of the heel of his palm, if anything - impulsively, and in the standoff Izuku's breathless autumn wind scent turned a little cooler. A little more dangerous. And Izuku was looking at him expectantly, his body tightening from where it had briefly loosened in exasperation.

It hit him then.

This was a courting game, wasn't it?

Fucker pulled him into a courting game without him even _knowing._

He'd never heard of a courting game quite like this, but they were traditional. They occurred regardless of the amount of suitors begging for an omega's trust, but they happened a lot more often when they had more than one.

It was only instincts. An omega had to discern which alpha was the most capable of providing for their interests. Of course, all kinds of alphas were more than able to fuck omegas and bring them a piece of meat or give them a shitty nest, but which alpha was able to figure out what their omega wanted? Who was the most in tune with their needs? Who was able to anticipate what it takes to make them happy and move in sync with them?

It figures that Izuku's was a fucking _fight. _

But when he looked to the uncompromising purse of Izuku's lips, and then the expectant look in his eye, Katsuki realized he had no choice in the matter. The omega in him was begging the question: will you humor me? Will you do this for me?

And Katsuki had no choice.

Releasing one of Izuku's wrists, he raised a fist.


	8. Chapter 8

Katsuki only got to see a flash of Izuku's blinding, sun-coming-out-of-the-clouds beam before a slab of stone, thrown from twenty feet away, slammed into his cheek.

Or at least, that's what Izuku's fist felt like when it swung without warning into his fucking face.

Pain splintered into his jaw, and in the second Katsuki was too stunned to respond, he let go of Izuku's other wrist. It let Izuku roll them both with a powerful twist of his hips, and his palms struck his side to shove him off while he pushed himself back and away. He was immediately reorienting himself, hands planting in the earth to push himself and back on his feet, and Katsuki caught that same wild look in his eye as he dusted himself off, his hands coming down over his hips to wipe the dirt out of the white, damaged undershirt.

Still shocked, it took a moment for Katsuki to follow, although he hauled himself into a sitting position first, his arms dangling between his bent, spread legs. It prompted Izuku into yet another cheeky, provocative smile, and he extended a scarred hand to him. "Need some help?"

_Get up._

The options his instincts were providing him with made no sense at all. Stand down, an omega was displeased enough to use physical violence to get away. Stand up, _your_ omega was being insolent and is challenging your ability to take care of him. Stand down, you already raised your fist to an omega and that's grounds for cutting off your own damn hand. Stand up, it's the only way this courting game proceeds. It's the only way _anything_ proceeds.

_Get _up.

He wouldn't take the hand reaching for him, though. He wouldn't bare his throat to Izuku that much, dammit, he was still a damn alpha, and he rolled his body up off the ground to crack his knuckles, then his wrists.

Izuku let his hand fall, watching his deft fingers pop and twist in an obvious attempt at intimidation with a disinterested raise of his brow.

Was it that hard to keep his attention?

"Maybe I should have let you stretch. You'd be a little more light on your feet."

"I caught you, smartass." Katsuki retorted immediately, his lip curling.

"Maybe I shouldn't have given you all of that information."

The beginning of his sentence was predominantly gravel and a growl, and he snapped "You saying that's the only reason I did?"

Izuku tossed his head to the side, his shoulders going up and down once. _You're not a threat, _said every inch of his body language, every bit of confidence in his scent. Katsuki thought of sinking his teeth into his neck. "Maybe."

His smile only grew when he saw Katsuki's eyes widen so much they nearly bulged out of his own damn skull, and Katsuki had to huff slowly through his nose so he wouldn't snatch the omega up right then and there. "How do you start this bullshit, anyway?" He fixed his eyes above the clearing, at some of the low hanging clouds. "There like, some sort of handshake? An agreement? An offering to your god?"

Izuku's snicker was dim and immediately covered with his fingers, but it still made something bright and fiercely satisfied curl in Katsuki's chest. "No, nothing like that. They're not interested in anything before a spar, I don't think."

"You don't think."

His lips puckered thoughtfully, his eyes went somewhere above his shoulder. "No, although I could show you some religious texts on Them if you'd like."

"What the fuck?" Katsuki fixed him with a bewildered look. "Is talking about religion something you do before fighting too?"

Izuku's foot kicked up a little cloud of dirt, meeting his eyes as the amusement in his expression died down. "I'm waiting for you to attack me, Katsuki."

Gods _dammit. _It would come down to him making the first move again, even though in the eyes of the law, both of his hands were liable to be chopped off, now. But he looked to Eijirou, so far away now, who was talking quietly with Shouto - seated underneath the tree, seemingly peaceful - and the redhead gave him the smallest nod.

He snorted, then looked back at Izuku, who was chewing the inside of his cheek while watching Katsuki's stance. The alpha hadn't fallen into any defensive or offensive postures, but then again neither had Izuku. Was he waiting for him to attack to even begin defending himself? What the hell was wrong with him?

His chin went up once again, and Katsuki felt it. A crackle of lightning, right between the two of them. Instinctively, the alpha in him knew that was a warning. The courting game would end if he didn't make a move, and the look of calm observation Izuku had on his face told him he knew he was forcing his hand once again. No modifications, no adulterations. Nothing but Katsuki coming at him properly, like a real Midoriyan spar, would be accepted.

Will you humor me? Will you do this for me? was the question once again, and he could hear it as clearly as Izuku speaking the words himself.

Omegas weren't built to fight. They were built to be cherished, they were built to be protected and safe. They were built to be the ones fought for, not against. But when it came to Izuku, it was beginning to seem as if you fought for him by fighting against him.

What kind of bullshit logic was that?

Katsuki rolled his head back and around in a half circle, grunting. "Tapping out ends it?"

Izuku's brows twitched up. "The proper words are 'I give.' Nothing else ends it."

"That didn't end it with Shouto."

He shifted his weight. "The exception is with pairs. We know how to gauge when the fight is over with them."

"You know what we say here?" The smile tugging at his lips was somewhat menacing, and if Katsuki didn't know any better, Izuku almost seemed to wither. "You win."

And then he tilted his head back, presenting his throat to Izuku while holding his gaze. Izuku's brows creased together, in what - disgust? horror? - as his eyes darted from the exposed gland at his throat to his face.

"Helps fend off alphas and particularly fighty betas when you're in the heat of it. We go to blood." Katsuki explained, somewhat smug about peeling off that confident poker face of Izuku's. "I win, you say I win. You win, I'll say I give."

The self-satisfaction was short lived. As Katsuki's chin went back down to level, Izuku's pupils dilated into tiny slits, the corners of his lips turning up in a false innocuous smile. Excitement made him look alive, and where Shouto had the look of a sun-warmed cat when confident, Izuku looked wild. Not unrefined and destructive like his mother, but baser. Un_de_fined.

"Fuck," Katsuki choked under his breath, trying to shake away where he was getting uncomfortably warm. "Fuck. How do we start?"

Izuku made a little gesture towards himself, almost looking like a vixen trying to goad her kits into learning how to fight. "You attack." He prompted him, voice as even as ever. It sounded nothing like it should, with Katsuki expecting it to be laden with growls and chirps, and he had to wonder what the hell even was Midoriya Izuku.

His answer was a bright, exhilarated energy coursing down Izuku's side of the link, but there was no answering otherworldly twitch of energy across his body. Nothing to indicate his quirk was being used, but it was an odd, reminiscent feeling.

Dammit.

Katsuki moved before he could think about it, before he could think about the repercussions and the very idea that he was raising a hand to his own fucking omega. He didn't think of the strategy needed to go against someone of Izuku's calibre, he didn't think about his experience. He threw the punch, a reciprocating hook to Izuku's, and aimed for the tip of his freckled nose.

He didn't expect it to hit, though.

He expected Izuku to catch his hand, to throw up his arm and block, or to jump back. Not take the hit, his head snapping in the opposite direction, and stumble back several feet. The noise Katsuki's fist made as it slammed into Izuku's face was unmistakable, and it echoed around his head, a numb, reverberating sound that was only amplified by Izuku's surprise and the sound of his slippers as he was pushed back by its force.

Izuku coughed, his head turned away, and he crouched to set a hand on his knee and hide his face.

"Hey-" Katsuki said tentatively, "_Hey_. Why didn't you dodge? What's wrong with you-"

He looked up, fresh, bright red blood beginning to leak down from his nose to coat his upper lip. Katsuki stumbled back as if the hit Izuku took ricocheted off him and rocked back into him, mouth immediately opening in shock as guilt and anger crashed down on his shoulders.

But the look Izuku was giving him wasn't sad or hurt. He didn't look like the omegas he would see, who as children, their lower lips would tremble and their eyes would fill with tears if they tripped. He still wore that look of anticipation, but now he was grinning, blood leaking into his mouth to stain his teeth pink.

And Katsuki was sick. He felt nausea roll in his stomach and reach up to his throat, bring tears to his eyes and take his breath away. He saw the blood and wanted to fall to his knees and grovel for every drop lost.

"You hit me." Izuku's voice was exuberant. It was a happiness he couldn't put words to, shocked and overjoyed.

"Yeah," Katsuki found the word dropping out of his mouth and onto the ground, barely able to drag his gaze from the blood making its way from his lips to his chin, and down to his jaw. He looked at his hand, curled back into a fist, and stared at his knuckles.

This was wrong. Every bit of this game was wrong, fighting him was wrong, hitting him was wrong. Making him bleed was unforgivable. Someone as helpless as an omega - who the fuck would do that to them? When they needed them so desperately-

"Hey." Izuku's voice was rough, low. It didn't sound right, even on him, but Katsuki figured it had to do with the blood gushing from his nose. "Look."

Katsuki couldn't bring his head up, and Izuku said, a little more sharply "_Look._"

There were a few drops of blood on the ground when he forced his hand back down, and when he looked back at Izuku, he had straightened himself up. Red stained the bottom hem of his undershirt, and there was some more smudged on his cheek now. Katsuki was torn between falling to his knees to beg his forgiveness and cleaning his face.

"You hit me." He said, and must have seen the immediate horror on his face, because he immediately followed it up with "Look at me! You hit me. Really, really hard. And I'm still standing. I'm still able to fight you, remember?"

The forest. Of course, he was talking about when he and Eijirou had caught up to them when they thought they were just beta defectors. He had thrown the back of his fist into his ear, ordered his own omega to stand down and show his belly like a worthless dog.

What the fuck.

What the fuck. This was wrong, this was wrong, this was _wrong._

"Hey!" Izuku shouted, his omega-round face too close as he bared his omega-dull teeth and pressed his omega-tiny body to Katsuki's own. "Are you listening to me? I'm still going to fight, Katsuki! I'm still going to stand and fight!"

Katsuki's head swung from one side to the other, heavy with shame and horror. "No- no! This is wrong- _fuck_! I made you bleed, what the fuck!"

"And you've made me into something I'm not for weeks, remember that too? You're not sorry for that?" Izuku demanded, though his alpha picked up a note of desperation in his voice. "You struck me down and I pulled myself back up. You get knocked down, you get back up. That's what I do! You said you wanted to see what I do, and this is it!"

"I didn't hurt you-" Katsuki tried, his mind whirling, but Izuku was cutting him off, leaning up on his toes and so close that his teeth nearly took the top of his nose clean off with every word.

"You did!" He snarled, "You made me feel like there was no way out! There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nowhere to feel safe! You did that to me, you and your mother both did that to me. You did that to Shouto, and you've tortured countless other people like that. You hurt me. You hurt me, Bakugou Katsuki, and I don't care what your motives were. You hurt me far before this and far worse than this, and this nosebleed is an apology!"

His scent slammed into him then, and mixture of fury and desperation. Salty like tears and hot like a bonfire, Katsuki choked on it, his unsteady legs trying to carry him back another step but stopping when they realized Izuku was literally supporting him almost entirely with both his fists curled in his shirt.

"Hit me again," Izuku said - no, commanded, his voice having near alphan weight to it. "Hit me again! Be an alpha!"

There it was again, that pleading overtone to his tone. It was discordant with the sharp, sure rumble, like some high winds instrument offensively out of tune. "You just want me to beat the shit out of you?" Katsuki choked out, "That's what you want me to do to apologize?"

"No!" Izuku exclaimed, his words sounding exasperated and wet. "No! I want you to fight me! I let you hit me to show you I can be hit! I won't shatter!"

There he was, still. Stocky and strong, fury and despair brimming in his eyes. Dark red blood crusted in the corner of his mouth, strength keeping him from falling back.

He was shaking, he realized. Not the kind of shaking he experienced after training, not a muscle fatigue shaking. He didn't tremble out of weakness, but out of the strength it required to try and move himself to Katsuki's level and beg him to understand.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be, not at all. Alphas weren't supposed to be pleaded with, alphas weren't supposed to be reasoned with and brought back to rationality. Omegas were the ones that were supposed to be met where they were at. They were the ones to be held and shooshed and pampered. This entire thing was fucking wrong.

But when it came to Midoriyas, what the fuck was right?

Katsuki raised a hand that felt weak and not at all his own, and then slipped it between Izuku's arms to rest on his chest. Izuku's sharp gaze skewered him as Katsuki stood a little more surely on his own two feet, and Katsuki shoved him, hard.

Izuku fell back, hands loosening from his shirt in his shock, and swung his arms backwards to keep his balance. When he was able to stabilize himself, his foot came back, sinking him into a more defensive stance, and Katsuki could hear the questions buzzing in his head as he struggled to analyze this. Did he bet wrong? Would this get him locked back down - did he push too far? Would he attack, and if so, would he attack with that same kind of cracking punch?

_Fuck! _Katsuki decisively cut off his thoughts, then said "I don't get what the hell you or any Midoriyan omega is on," staring down at the hand that tore him down, nearly broke his nose, and now pushed him away. His hands weren't supposed to do any of that bullshit. "But fine."

Izuku's breath caught. "Don't fucking shatter, then, Izuku." Katsuki told him, "Don't do that again, don't play games with me to prove a fucking point. I'll fight you, but this is the first and only time."

Rolling from his heels to his toes once, he only gave the smallest allowing dip of his chin. Katsuki tried not to bother himself with what he was thinking as those green eyes flicked from his fists to his face. "Fine. Attack me, then."

He snorted. "Hell no. You think I'm gonna do that after you pulled that brat move? You attack me."

Indignation passed through Izuku's expression, eliciting the most delicious, infuriated glare from him. It wasn't undignified, it was pissed, and was the expression of someone who was thinking of the best way to fuck him up.

Fine. Try it, you little shit.

To his surprise, Izuku threw a punch right back at him, his closed first snapping towards his jaw. Katsuki instinctively put his forearm up to shove it aside, but had to jerk his chin back to dodge his other fist, the uppercut nearly grazing his nose. And when his balance went backwards, then came Izuku's knee, colliding with his ribs to send him reeling to the right.

Fuck.

Katsuki forced his feet to make proper contact with the ground, nearly stumbling as his ankle refused to go straight. That glow in Izuku's eyes was back as he pivoted, aiming another kick for his chest-

And Katsuki caught it, both of his arms up to negate the force that came with his strong legs. And hell, did it hurt, especially as Izuku's foot snapped back to try and land another blow against his stomach, but only served to ram into his elbow as the force rocked into the rest of his body.

Izuku's foot came down, and oh- he recognized that bullshit. He was going to twist, use that strength to whip around on his heel and break a fucking bone. Katsuki was ready for it when he turned on his foot, and when his heel came around, speeding towards his shoulder, he caught it on the landing.

He caught the wide eyed look Izuku gave him as - even when the block fell expectedly on the back of his knee, Katsuki abruptly grabbed his ankle. He smiled briefly, fangs briefly exposing themselves in a grin so shiteating it gave Izuku pause. Clearly, he was going to try and bring him to the ground - Izuku's knee was bent to jump and throw his weight into Katsuki's chest. But the alpha was half a second too quick, and Katsuki dug his fingers into the muscle of Izuku's thigh to shift his weight into his back leg.

And Izuku _yelped_ as he was suddenly thrown across the grounds, Katsuki tossing him several feet to the side. _He relies too much on being on stable ground and standing,_ he reasoned, desperate for a weakness. _He probably was no good at pup wrestling, he couldn't pull all of his little tricks from the ground-_

Izuku rolled, a hand shoving into the ground. Katsuki could feel the training, carved and molded into every muscle in his body, all screaming _getupgetupgetupgetup-_

When Katsuki approached him, wearing that same subtle smile Izuku did, he just extended a hand. Izuku's eyes darted to it, and then to his face, shifting from his elbow to push himself up.

"Need a hand?" He asked mockingly, and the split second he saw the purse of Izuku's lips should have been a warning.

His legs were buckling before he realized what was happening. Izuku's legs had swung in wide circles, twisting his body over to brace with the backs of his arms and roll to his side. On the second swing of his legs around, the sole of his foot slammed into the side of his knee, and Katsuki himself shouted "Shit!" as he reached out a hand to break his fall.

Izuku didn't fucking stop! He didn't even drag himself to his feet, he scrambled over like a dog. He batted away the hands set up to block him, and his hands met Katsuki's shoulders to shove his back into the dirt. When Katsuki bared his teeth in a snarl, snapping into the open air, Izuku was right there in his face, the same growl boiling in his chest.

His teeth were right there, just shy of his nose, and Katsuki had to wonder if the sharp fangs in his mouth were shaved or this was yet another alpha leaning - in an omega of all things. Yes, his teeth were dull like an omega's but sharper than they should be, and- Katsuki shoved a hand into his cheek when they came too close to his face, his own instincts insisting around Izuku's feral scent to turn them both over and show him exactly where his place was.

But Izuku's hand closed around his wrist, slicking his hand over the gland with a grin of his own. "No tricks up your sleeve, huh?" He teased, his voice low with an undertone of danger that made his stomach turn. He couldn't tell if it were positive or negative, not with the sudden rush of endorphins to his head. "No quirk, no pheromones. Reflexes are slow. How much do you rely on scent, Katsuki?"

"Fuck off." 

"A fair amount." Izuku snickered, delighted. "Benefits you, doesn't it? When the rest of the world depends on their nose, and your people have figured out pheromonal attacks?"

"Do you get high on fighting? Gods, what the hell is your problem," Katsuki spat. "You gonna put me in a headlock or what?" 

"You already lost." Izuku rolled his eyes, mischief making his face absolutely radiant.

"Oh _fuck off_! I haven't said shit!"

He beamed, and a hand wrapped around his throat, bulky fingers crushing his windpipe. Nothing enough to make it impossible to breathe, but enough to catch Izuku's interest as those dilating pupils watched his every move. "Right, but I could have snapped your neck when you got distracted. Used a dagger, maybe, too. Really. The possibilities are endless."

It wasn't fear Katsuki was feeling, but it was definitely cold and anxious like it. Izuku's expression was still glowing, and Katsuki found himself caught on the freckles adorning his nose. "Midoriyan spars are real educational, you know that?"

"That's kind of the point." The pressure at his throat became a little more constricting, and Izuku, eyes like moons, was watching closely.

Katsuki was struck with the urge to kiss him, tear that stupidly predatory look off his face. It made him look absurd and absolutely feral, like the stupid lands he came from, and tension was building in the space between Izuku's chin and his own face.

Maybe because he had to think about every passing breath.

"Well?" Izuku's voice was sing-song. The same you'd use with pups who were misbehaving. "Do you give, Katsuki? Are you giving up?"

Oh, fuck that.

The animal sitting in his stomach reeled from the blow to its pride when he recognized the tease for what it was, blowing hot air in a warning snort. The remnants of the endorphins beginning to wear off, he felt it in his chest, hot, furious flames licking their way up to his throat.

An omega was trying to make a fool out of him, huh? His own fucking omega. Sitting on his chest like a pup and grinning down at him like he was his next meal. He thought he had him in a corner, he thought he didn't even need to fight him past the five minute mark to get him to show him his throat. He didn't feel an inch of fear for what he might be doing, he didn't feel afraid for what he might incur, he didn't feel any bit beholden to him.

Well, fuck that.

Katsuki was only barely able to temper the heat in his palm when his hand struck Izuku across the face. It might leave a bite, but Katsuki wasn't too upset about it when the omega reeled back, his back meeting Katsuki's raised knees. The hand around his neck went up, going to his cheek on instinct, and Katsuki roared, surging up to grip Izuku's jaw.

Those eerily alight eyes went wide, pupils in thin lines taking in every move he made unflinchingly, even as his face was squished in Katsuki's rough hand. That smile was _still_ there as he waited, nose scrunching at the offensive turn Katsuki's scent had taken.

_You just gonna glare at me?_ Izuku's voice, taunting and whispered, curled up in his mind. His head almost tilted away, his brain almost swearing he was breathing those exact words in his ear.

No fear. None.

Katsuki felt his patience snap. For the first time in his life, he willfully roared at an omega, putting sharp teeth on display to throw an order to _stand down _right in his face. It was a wordless, directionless yell, an order for him to show his throat, to sink to the ground, because playtime was over. His thumb was on Izuku's diseased fucking gland for gods' sake, he could drive his claw in and end the fight right then and there!

It would end a soldier's disobedience, it would cut off some peasant farmer's rebellion. They'd fall to their knees, beta, alpha, _omega, _whoever they were, tilt their heads to the side and look away. He could bring them all to heel like disobedient dogs with just a word, but per usual, Izuku didn't seem to get the message.

Fear crossed his expression for one delicious moment, wincing through the tiniest of flinches, sending a chilly breeze through his scent.

And Izuku said _No, _meeting his posturing to suck in a breath-

Only for Katsuki to grip his face, hard. Shifting his weight, he threw his strength into his shoulder, shoving Izuku's body off of him. As he rolled, Izuku's legs kicking like a fish out of water as they went into the air, Katsuki bit out a "Shut the _fuck_ up, omega," driving his head down until it met the loosely packed earth.

It chased the air out of his lungs; his back must have hit the ground wrong. Izuku tried to taking in a whooping, gasping breath, his body curving and arching beneath him as his eyes went teary and his face went red. His hands, curled into fists, beat weakly at his shoulders, and his heels drove into his stomach while Katsuki struggled to wrestle him down. Katsuki's palm, rapidly heating, shoved Izuku's cheek into the dirt, his thigh coming down sharply across his knees.

Izuku screeched with the last of his breath, a clawed hand reaching blindly for purchase. Katsuki dodged a haphazard swipe, the omega's gasps filling his ears and setting his heart pounding in a terrifying, adrenaline-fueled rhythm, but didn't account for the nails hooking into the skin of his forearm. Katsuki hissed, trying to jerk his arm - and Izuku's face - to make him let go, but that only gave the fucker license to dig in deeper, claws dragging down and sending sharp, alarming pain up his arm.

"Fuck!" He shouted, yanking his hand away. It only served to take Izuku's hand with him, and he gasped as the force tore at the skin, and fuck - he didn't know, he didn't put it past him - muscle. He reached for Izuku's wrist, driving his thumb into the swell of his tender gland, and Izuku cried out, his body arching up under him.

"Don't!" Izuku yelled back, apparently having gained enough air to speak while writhing underneath him with a new ferocity.

"Don't?" Katsuki repeated, tossing Izuku's now useless hand away. His teeth _itched _watching the clean line of Izuku's throat stretch back with the more feeble rolls of his body, and he tasted something metallic as his claiming teeth lengthened and sharpened in his mouth. "I'm not hearing a 'you win, alphai,' so quit your fucking whining."

Izuku wheezed beneath him, tears brimming in his eyes, and Katsuki forced himself to ignore the twenty-three years of training and a softening alpha that said to stop this destructive game. He tried to feed the rage Izuku had stoked in him, add more fuel to the fire whose kindle was his blatant rejection of his competence and the humiliation that he had to forcefully show him what he was capable of doing to him.

_For _him.

"Fucking-" Katsuki didn't know where the sentence would go as he swung his arm up, bending it to make his elbow a weapon as it came down. He'd hit him square in the chest, knock the wind out of him again and end this stupid game, and it would stop the ridiculous, mortifying rebellion.

The sharp edge of his elbow didn't come down just beneath his ribs like he planned, but down into the bulk of his side. Izuku had twisted at the last moment, his face burying itself in Katsuki's shoulder. The alpha froze, stopping himself on the upswing of another blow, as Izuku pressed his nose into the edge of his shoulder, his forehead brushing his upper arm.

Scenting? Was this scenting? Was he giving up?

A cold beam of quiet pierced through the angry din of his thoughts, and Katsuki hesitated.

"Izuku?" 

His only response was a warm gust of air against his bicep. "What are you smiling abo-"

A shocked cry escaped him as what felt like a harmless smile against his skin turned into two rows of teeth sinking into the meat of his upper arm. He didn't apply enough pressure to break skin on the initial bite, but when Katsuki gasped, bodily jerking away to give Izuku crucial leverage, he forced himself forward. He felt the burn of his fangs first, four punctures to add to the four just inches below, before the rest followed in a dull crescent of pain.

Omegas don't bite - fuck that, _soldiers_ don't bite! Soldiers didn't hook their claws in, soldiers wouldn't aim for the fleshy bits uncovered by armor with their fucking teeth!

"What are you, a fucking savage?" Katsuki snarled, his anger snapping right back into place. His fist knocked against Izuku's skull once- twice- before it was able to dislodge him, but Izuku didn't seem fazed when he came away, mouth horrifyingly bloody.

"To you?" Izuku breathed, his palms hitting the ground to his side as his feet kicked up and his legs fanned out to carry Katsuki's own bracing leg off him, "Probably."

He should have suspected - he should have figured the second Izuku's breath was even. He should have suspected something when he hadn't met him with another blow, and he wondered for a moment if Izuku had been faking his breathlessness.

Crafty, _crazy_ fucker.

But now there was blood running down his arm into the dirt, and Izuku was still moving, one hand gripping the other's fist so the outer edge of his forearm slammed into his cheek. The arm Katsuki had been leaning on buckled to take the force of the blow, and Izuku scrambled away, kicking up dirt in his wake. He made a blind grab for his ankle, Izuku hissing an expletive as he was forced to kick Katsuki's claws from his ankle like one would shake off a fucking leech from the river.

No wonder no one could pin a fighting style on any of them. They fought like actual savages when it came down to it, regardless of how above it they wanted to present themselves as. They'd fight on all fours if need be, swords and arrows and quirks were just auxiliary weapons.

"Hey!" Izuku's slippered heel was swinging towards him, Katsuki's arms only coming up just in time to block another bruise to his cheek. "Say you give!"

Pissed as he was, Katsuki had to snort a dry laugh. "Like hell, you stubborn bitch."

He never only struck once, and Katsuki was ready for his foot to pivot and the next blow to fall. It smacked into his other forearm, and when he shifted, trying to push himself to his feet, he received a terrifying, bloodstained smile from Izuku.

"Gods, you're fucking insane," he hissed, curling his body to avoid another kick to his gut. "Biting? Deception? What the fuck do they teach you?"

Izuku grunted, throwing another punch that skimmed Katsuki's shoulder as he deflected to his right. "Discipline is freedom, remember?"

It rang a bell, but a quiet one. Not enough for anything of use to come to mind before Katsuki was smacking aside an attempted backhand and using that arm to twist and bring him close, but enough to grit out "Now what are you on about?"

He burned his face, Katsuki realized when there was a break in their movements. Not enough to bubble up and blister, but enough to darken one of his cheeks an inflamed red, although..

The glimpse of his face he got, before Izuku was twisting to throw his knee into his hip, struck him as odd. His teeth poked out on either side of his red lips, one side of his face was burned, and sweat coated his forehead and sides of his face. Katsuki _guessed_ the appropriate alpha reaction was supposed to be to want to pull his hair back so it was out of his eyes, but seeing those fangs bared in a half grimace, half grin, was..

He was going to call an omega fighting fucking _hot_, wasn't he? He was going to call watching those sweat-slicked muscles twist and contort with the objective of beating the shit out of him sexy, huh?

But he didn't have time to think on it further, because by then Izuku's knee careened into his side, and Katsuki, still with a grip on his arm, staggered but kept his balance. Frustrated, he growled, baring his teeth again, and Katsuki hissed "_Fuck_ that," his claws up in warning.

"Huh-" Izuku's toes hit the ground, and his knee came up-

Only for Katsuki to block it with a forceful arc of his arm outward, claws outstretched. His forearm connected with his inner thigh, blocking the hit, but Izuku gasped, this time stumbling himself.

His foot touched back down, Katsuki waiting for another attempted kick, but his weight shifted forward to his other leg. When he winced, letting out a pained hiss, Katsuki immediately glanced to his foot, assuming he had stubbed it or something stupid again - but caught on the blood staining the ripped, foresty green of his leggings.

"Son of a bitch," Katsuki cursed, catching the next sloppy punch with his hand. "Hey- asshole, you're hurt."

"Doesn't matter," Izuku retorted, now trying to use that bloody leg to kick him off. Rather easily - and much to Izuku's displeasure - Katsuki yanked him in close by both of his wrists.

The fresh blood was chasing away his fury better than any quip of Izuku's could, even at his blatant irritation. Katsuki glared back at him when their chests knocked together, his chin lifting higher as Izuku struggled. "Yeah, well, does to me. There's too much blood here."

"You've got more blood," Izuku pointed out, scowling, but the weeks without training was showing. His composure was slipping, however slightly, and he was more out of breath than Katsuki. He even leaned forward somewhat, bracing himself on the wrists Katsuki was holding.

"Doesn't matter." He retorted, a mocking lilt to his voice making Izuku's frown grow deeper. The alpha fought back a shiteating grin, even as Izuku's lip curled like a recalcitrant pup.

"I can still keep going. Let me keep going." Izuku gave his wrists a pointed shake, but in the corner of his eye, Katsuki could see a growing number of dark red drops on the dirt by his shoe and knew he couldn't allow it.

"Nope." He said dryly, Izuku's side of the link electrifying with indignation, and added "We're done here. I don't want to fight anymore."

"I do." Izuku bit back. "Besides. You forfeit, then."

"Hah?!" Katsuki exclaimed. "The hell, shit, and _fuck_ did you get that from?"

It was Izuku's turn to smile. "You don't want to fight anymore, so you forfeit."

"Let's get one thing straight here, pipsqueak, I didn't forfeit jack shit. I'm withdrawing because I don't want to fight anymore because you're hurt, and I'm hurt, and it's stupid-"

Izuku abruptly twisted, having none of that. "Hey!" He shouted, his voice carrying to the two alphas still sitting by the tree, and Katsuki tried to jerk him so he was facing him once more.

"Oh no you don't, you little shit-"

"Katsuki forfeit!" Izuku's voice was bright, his grin evident.

"Fucker I absolutely _did not-_"

"Hell yeah!" Eijirou cheered, standing up to put up his fists and do some sort of jig that Katsuki guessed was supposed to convey manliness. _Traitor._

Shouto was soon to follow, crossing his arms, and Izuku finally turned to shoot him a devious look. Alpha be damned, he wanted to keep fighting and wipe that smug look off his face, but he decided the reason he had allowed so many hits was because he knew Izuku had been cooped up for weeks and was a little slow. He needed an ego boost to feel better too. Obviously.

Although, it had mixed feelings over whether or not it wanted its omega cheering victory over it. The back of Izuku's neck had looked like a particularly nice place to sink his teeth into to scruff him and shut him the fuck down when he had turned, but it also informed him that the amount of blood running down his leg was unacceptable.

He decided it was insufferable and delivered a swift kick to its stupid flank.

By which time, Izuku was abandoning him and waltzing on over to the other alphas like he was an alpha born and bred himself, all high spirits and confident swagger. And fuck did he pull it off: his hips swayed, his arms swung loosely at his side, and he laughed, brash and cheerful.

He'd ultimately allow it, only muttering a "Shit's stupid." sulkily as he followed behind him. Eijirou threw an arm around his shoulders, grinning from ear to ear, although Katsuki was somewhat tuning him out as he kept his eyes on Izuku's broad, impish smile.

He even let Eijirou give him the play by play as if he hadn't been there, letting him spout off about every move that had occurred, how impressed he was by Izuku's training, and what must have gone into his conditioning. Izuku, sticking oddly close to Katsuki's side, had brushed off and dismissed every compliment, ducking his head to try and hide an additional boost to his high red color.

Eventually, he shrugged off Eijirou's arm with a "Hey. In case you bastards hadn't noticed, we're both still bleeding, and it's pretty fucking important that that stops sometime soon."

"Oh, you're right." The alpha to his other side fisted a hand and tapped it against his other open palm thoughtfully. "You can't go to Chiyo though, she's still in-"

Idiot. "I know where she is. I can handle us both, it's just a few claw wounds and bite marks." They're still Midoriyas, smartass!

"I can handle myself." Izuku cut in smoothly, pulling at his leggings to inspect the wound. "It.. doesn't hurt particularly badly either."

Katsuki levelled him with a glance. "Consider it a consolation prize for my very, _very_ unwilling admittance to a draw. You don't even have anything to treat it with either, smartass, and unless you want every alpha and beta within a five mile radius on your tail for smelling like hurt omega, you'll let me handle it."

Izuku's cheeks hollowed out as he sucked them in indignantly, but he clearly couldn't find a good argument against it.

"Great." Katsuki internally preened. "Let's go. Eijirou, you can get the half and half bastard to his room, right?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Eijirou saluted. He rolled his eyes, then nodded to Izuku.

Izuku exchanged a goodbye with Eijirou, then had a softer parting with Shouto that Katsuki didn't care to hear, and then quickly hurried behind Katsuki. They followed the path back to the palace in silence - peaceful, and yet anticipative silence, since he could hear the quiet in Izuku's head from the relief of the fight, and yet the questions buzzing in his head all the same. He didn't limp or show any sign of strain, and walked with his arms by his sides, not at all covering his wounds.

The sun was halfway through its descent towards the horizon at that point, casting early evening light on the garden terraces as Katsuki led him to one of the side entrances. Their footsteps up the stairs were the only sound aside from the rustling plants with the breeze, and while he considered turning to fret over the wound in Izuku's leg, a precursory look behind him when they got to the base of the bottom steps was enough for him to wisely keep his mouth shut.

When they arrived at the topmost terrace, Katsuki glanced around, his pace slowing as they approached the door. No one seemed to be hanging around the garden, but the dainty hanging lights weren't the best to see some alpha or beta lurking in the shadows.

Abruptly, he came to a stop, causing Izuku to dig the toe of his slipper into the ground to avoid careering into him.

"What's-"

"Put this on." Katsuki ordered him, shrugging off the light orange overshirt he had been wearing. He didn't know how many people were still milling about at this time, and it gave him a headache just to think about.

He kicked aside the hurt from watching Izuku's face crease in disgust. "Why on earth would I do that?"

His nostrils flared for a second with his sigh. "You smell good, smartass." Katsuki explained, and when he received a look drier than the cracked earth of campaign trails after weeks without rain, he added "You smell like adrenaline, sweat, blood, and _omega._ Someone's gonna want to take a bite, and you're _hurt_ to boot, too. So just put it on so we won't have any problems."

Izuku's eyes narrowed speculatively. "What's the charge for hurting an omega?"

Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose, and he was beginning to think that an actual headache was coming on. "Technically, the hand that hurt them is supposed to come off. I don't know the logistics for when your omega throws a damn tantrum to get you to do it, though."

His temper, quick and spitfire, flared up, but Katsuki held up a hand with a quick "Sorry. Look, we just need to get inside so I can treat your wounds. Who knows what the fuck the hag'll say if she smells blood on you at dinner."

Izuku grunted but took the garment from him between his thumb and forefinger, turned it upside down, and very unwillingly slipped his arms through the sleeves to put it on.

Absently, Katsuki decided orange was very much not Izuku's color to further kick aside the insistent pain in his stomach, and turned away once he had poked his ridiculous green curls through the hole for the head to carefully open one of the doors leading to an outer wing of the castle. Most people were flitting about the main hallways, given one task or another to prepare for dinner, which left the outer rung of hallways free.

"Come on," he murmured, avoiding grabbing Izuku's hand to guide him by clenching his fist, and slipped inside. Izuku shut the door softly behind them, and together they walked through several hallways leading back towards Katsuki's wing. At one point, Katsuki stopped at a door on the right side of the hallway, then jammed his hand into one of his pants' pockets to find a set of keys.

He unlocked the door, then silently pulled it open, squinting into the significantly lower light. The same enchanted, tiny lights that let the way to his room provided miniscule light here, and there was just enough light for them to be able to see the ladder at the back of the room.

"What is this?" Izuku whispered as that door closed and locked automatically behind him, the extra click drawing a wary wince from him.

"Just another way of getting there," Katsuki grunted back, then arched a brow as he set a foot on the lowest rung. "You scared of the dark?"

"Of course not!" Izuku hissed, peeling off the door to crowd him up the ladder. "Is it not a little weird when there's secret passages in a castle?"

"Secret passages," Katsuki snorted as he climbed up to push through the heavy trap door. "That's romantic." His arm wasn't in agreement with him, though, and the movement pulled at the tentative scabbing as he pushed up and through.

Izuku scoffed right back at him, his voice hushed to match the quietness of their movements and the peaceful silence in the air. "That's totally what this is. I can't imagine what you'd need one for, though."

Katsuki offered his hand down to him when his head poked through the hole in the next room's floor, though the withering look he got made him take it back. Izuku threw his thigh over the edge to push himself up, and Katsuki internally cringed at seeing the blood clotted to the fabric.

"Sometimes you need to get places without every courtier and extra in the world knowing about it. It's not that big'a deal," he muttered, turning to open the only door in the room while ignoring the hiss of pain and effort Izuku made as he stood. It led back to his own wing, and the cool, quiet humidity immediately began working to soothe his frayed nerves.

Izuku's tongue clicked dismissively behind him, and when he looked back at him before he pushed the door to his own room open, the omega was looking at the rest of the doors speculatively, his head cocked to listen.

And then Katsuki pushed his door open, and Izuku was all business once again. "We're gonna need more light, Katsuki." He said, a jab at the tiny, intimate lighting in his room, and Katsuki grunted in response.

"Yeah, whatever. Not my fault you can't see too well."

"You need to be able to see more than just figures to treat wounds effectively," Izuku smarted back as Katsuki dipped into a room off his main chamber, heading for a cupboard.

"Just fucking- sit for a second. I'll handle it." He muttered, his palms passing over multiple glass jars of medicine he knew by touch alone to come to rest on the small vial that contained tiny, tiny compressed pills of butterbur.

Son of a bitch.

He clicked his tongue, taking the vial to pour two of the little seed-like things into his palm and throw them back. The pungent taste was nothing if not offensive, but Katsuki capped the bottle once again to grab a fatter, stockier jar and a roll of bandages. He then fished around on the shelf above it for a few rags, and then went to the basin to rinse them with cool water.

When he came back into the main room, Izuku, squinting in the low light with his nose buried in the overshirt and his leg scrunched to his chest to try and ease the fabric away from the bloody wound, looked up to turn that same look of concentration to him. "Where did- that's mine!" He exclaimed, eyes widening in recognition.

"Yeah." Katsuki shook the jar of antiseptic Izuku had in his pack. "Figured it was a bad idea to go to waste, and you'd probably like your shit better. Stop touching your leg, I said I'd handle it."

With that, he set the supplies on the table next to his bed, and then unceremoniously climbed on the bed to reach the usually unlit chandelier in the middle of the ceiling. Izuku made a disparaging noise but shifted to the edge of the bed so he wouldn't hinder Katsuki's balance, and Katsuki reached up, using tiny explosions that sounded like the most pathetic fireworks show ever to light the eight candles in the chandelier.

It provided more light than he was used to seeing his room in, and Izuku sighed in relief below him, blinking gratefully. Of course, his hands went right back to inspecting his leg, and Katsuki couldn't help the growl in the back of his throat. "What did I _just_ say? For the third fucking time, hands off so I can look at it."

Izuku's expression was unimpressed when he hopped down to land on the floor, his hands remaining on the hem of his leggings. "I can handle this myself, I'm not completely inept."

Katsuki grit his teeth at the frustration in his voice and said "_Look._ I'm not saying you can't do that shit yourself. I know you can, I'm sure you could waltz into the fucking infirmary and treat a bunch of dumbass troops that can't handle themselves and do it better than some of our healers. It's just-"

The omega rose a brow, spurring Katsuki to continue, but the words didn't come like they had earlier that morning. "Just let me do it, okay?"

Izuku's eyes looked him up and down, his lips pursing together as he assessed, as he always did, how worth it it was to take a stand here, to have this battle, to commit to this argument.

He opened his mouth, and Katsuki felt his own open too, just to let a soft "Please." out.

Izuku sighed, his shoulders sagging, and let his hands come away from his leg to rest behind him. "This.. better not become a thing, alright?"

He tried to ignore the immense relief as he conceded, and shit, that was probably the first time Izuku had given him verbal permission to touch him. He was still being watched with eyes as sharp as razors, but Katsuki took it as a victory as his fingers gently began rolling the bottom hem of his pants up. "Yeah, yeah. You know it'd be easier if these just came off, right?"

"Or you could just cut it off." Izuku replied immediately, tensing.

"I'm not going to take them off, Izuku." Katsuki said quietly, pausing. "I'm just saying it would be easier, especially since you have to change."

Izuku looked back, his jaw working mistrustfully, and then just sighed a little halfhearted laugh. "Yeah, probably. Just roll it up, it doesn't even hurt that bad."

Katsuki grunted, cautiously peeling the fabric away from the wound. The blood had clotted somewhat, and pulling the leggings away from the scratch made it start bleeding again. There was no reaction from Izuku as Katsuki cursed, grabbing a rag from the table to catch the blood as he gently continued pulling up the fabric.

The scratch wasn't big, but he could see it was fairly deep once he managed to get the tight but light fabric up the rest of the way. Carefully, he pressed the rag into the wound to encourage it to start clotting again, and kept his eyes trained on his leg while Izuku let out a long exhale.

"The hell do you mean, it doesn't hurt that bad. Some betas would be whimpering like pups if they had a wound like this." Katsuki muttered without really realizing. "Can't take a knick from a sword, let alone claws. No one uses their claws, that'd freak'em the fuck out."

Izuku shifted on his hands, his weight coming forward slightly to make the bed dip a little more. "Who'd suspect claws, then?"

"Yeah. You got me, I guess."

"Or teeth?"

"Asshole."

Izuku laughed. "You said Midoriyan spars are educational, and that's the point. You know what advice I'd give to you?"

"What makes you think I'd take your advice?" He curled his lip.

"The fact that you-" Izuku paused, obviously relishing the furious look Katsuki was giving him, given the glee back in his expression. "-_forfeited._"

"I did not!" Katsuki exclaimed, turning up his nose pridefully. "And even if I did, and I have _never_, in my entire life, forfeited-"

"And here I thought Bakugous were all about the fight." Izuku, with no fear of any god, at all, ever, taunted him. "Turning tail from a battle is so unmanly, Kirishima always liked to say."

"Can it be enough," Katsuki cut in, "That I don't really like seeing you fucking bleeding? That I'm not a fan of watching something that should be in your body just dripping onto the ground? I'm not alright with that, asshole? _Hah_?"

Grumbling, he lifted the rag to check on the clotting. When he didn't receive any complaints or any resulting rush of red, he pulled the rag away to reach and grab the damp rag to begin cleaning the wound.

Izuku only broke the silence after watching him for a few moments, and it was just to mutter "Blood doesn't mean I'm not alright. I'm not gonna fall apart because I got hit-"

"I saw that!" Katsuki snapped, carefully wiping down the light sheen of crusted, dark blood that surrounded the angry border of the cut. "I get it, you made me fucking hit you to prove a point. I'm saying it's different from that!"

From there, he followed the trail of blood that had seeped down his calf, over raised scars and between the valleys of his muscles, around his ankle and to the side of his foot. He slid the slipper off, Izuku stiffening once again, but only passed the rag over the remaining blood on the underside of his foot.

"Different.. how?" He asked once he was allowed to lower his now bare foot onto the comforter. He was watching him less defensively, at least.

Katsuki grunted as he leaned to get the salve, opening it to sniff its contents before deeming it safe to use. "Different as in I know you're not gonna be blown away if the wind changes, you dick. But I don't like seeing you hurt, and I don't like being the one that _caused_ you hurt."

"That was the best kind of hurt you've caused so far." Izuku replied dryly, watching Katsuki's fingers rub the salve on the wound unflinchingly. "I'd rather get your claws a hundred times than go under like that."

There was something to his tone, not afraid like his side of the link told him, but achingly sad nonetheless, that made his alpha want to howl. "What's the problem with it?" Katsuki asked, unendingly painstaking with his movements.

"The problem with it?" Izuku's fingers began to dig into the comforter. "I told you- it- it doesn't make me feel like myself, Katsuki! It makes me feel like I'm being driven crazy with paranoia or just drugged and asleep-"

"What am I supposed to do?" Katsuki retorted. "Let you just sit there, anxious and upset? I can do something about it, so why shouldn't I?"

"Because you make it so much worse like that!" Izuku looked away when his tone wavered, shaking his head. "You know what helped me feel better? This! Fighting someone, even fighting you! I feel better than I have in weeks, and you just- you don't see that?"

Of course he did, but he couldn't possibly keep offering that! He didn't even see how they were going to get away with this the first time around! "I know you do, dammit, I just-"

"Just what?" He pressed, grabbing the bandages before Katsuki could continue. "Just what, Katsuki?"

Katsuki's hand halted in midair, and his teeth gritted together. In the better lightning, he could catch the wetness gathering in Izuku's eyes, and it made his gut twist in helplessness. "I can't make you empty, shitty promises when I don't know I can deliver on them! What kind of shitty alpha would I be if I say fuck yeah, go get hurt, I'll go make arrangements while _gods_ help you if you get caught-"

"It's not about the fighting!" Izuku exclaimed, his head whipping around to stare at him. "It doesn't come down to sparring and fighting and thank you for letting me do that but-" His hands went up, and then landed at his sides as he shook his head again, distraught. "I just thanked you for letting me be autonomous, Katsuki! For letting me vent my emotions properly!"

He hesitated, unsure how to deal with the weight of the sudden emotion in Izuku's voice. Instinctively he knew he wanted to reach out his with scent, take him into his arms and pull him into a restful sleep and reprieve from all this, but the second his thoughts went down that route Izuku's hand struck like lightning to grab his wrist.

"Don't do it." Izuku looked at him imploringly, the dark circles under his eyes beginning to dampen. "Don't do it again, Katsuki. Please."

Katsuki was stiff under his touch, his brows nearly touching in a deep frown. Again, his alpha wailed for him to curl around him, soothe him, cater to his every need, but all Katsuki could pull out was "What- what the hell am I supposed to do in that situation if you can't just fight?"

"Fighting is just one thing," Izuku nodded, some relief soothing his tone. "But just- _listen_ to me. That's what I want. I want you to listen to me."

It's not the quick fix his alpha demanded, not at all. "But-" he began, and then quickly continued at Izuku's crestfallen expression, "-the things that upset you, the things you don't like, those aren't things I can fix for you." The last bit was grumbled out begrudgingly, and Izuku shook his head, squeezing his wrist.

"I don't want you to fix them." He said, his voice dropping down to a whisper. "I want you to listen. That's all I want. I want you to hear me and listen."

Then what the hell was he supposed to do with that? "Words are just words, they don't do anything," Katsuki said, shaking his head.

"Maybe not," Izuku agreed, leaning forward. "But they still mean something. And it would mean a lot to me if you would listen."

Katsuki's cheeks were beginning to burn with the intensity of his gaze, and he didn't have the low light the room usually had to hide it. He couldn't break eye contact either, not with Izuku's pleading, _pleading_ eyes trying to burrow into him. But if he wasn't able to solve his problems as his alpha, what other purpose did he serve? If he wasn't supposed to protect him and keep him from harm, what else was he supposed to do?

And then came Izuku's voice, soft and sure, almost like a dam's. _Just listen._

"Gods," Katsuki muttered, suddenly having to blink and pull away just a little. "Fuck- fine. Fine, I'll try and just- yeah, okay. Just- don't cry. I'll do it, just stop crying, alright?"

Izuku's breath came out shakily in a warbling sigh, and when Katsuki was able to look at him, it nearly stole his own breath away. It wasn't a shining, gorgeous grin, or one of the sly things shot his way. But it looked like the sun coming out from between the clouds, bits of pure light piercing through murky grey. An actual smile, just for him.

"Okay," he said, voice sounding wet and gross. "Okay."

He wanted to kiss that wavering upper lip of his, hold his face and promise him the whole damn world just to see him smile again.

Instead, he turned his hot face away and just muttered "Okay." in return.

After an awkward beat of silence, punctuated with Izuku shaky breaths, he extended his hand- the one not being held by him- and added "Can I finish up your leg?"

"Oh!" Izuku shook his head and immediately handed the bandages off, releasing Katsuki to press the heels of his palms into his face. "Right- right, sorry, um-" he sniffed, dragging his hands down to his cheeks.

"Yeah," Katsuki nodded, still awkward as he began wrapping the wound. "Is that too tight?"

"No, it's fine." Izuku wiped his face while Katsuki passed the roll of bandages from one hand to the other around his leg. "Doesn't hurt at all."

"Do you even have a sense of touch?" He griped, securing the bandaging and then reaching for another clean, damp rag to start on his face.

"Just a high pain toler- what are you doing?" Izuku blinked owlishly at him, leaning away from the rag.

"Cleaning your face?" Katsuki frowned. "The hell else do you think I'm doing? You've got blood all over your lips and neck."

His brow wrinkled with his own frown, evidently taking an inventory of where the blood was before he was able to just nod and say "Fine. But I'll handle your arm, then."

Admittedly, Katsuki didn't think he would get _that_ far. He thought Izuku would draw the line at his face, and especially his neck, given the episode from a few days ago that still pissed him off to no end to know nothing about. And still, Izuku had dropped his legs to the side of the bed, letting his body twist to face him without obstruction.

He was sure he looked just as incredulous as he felt, because Izuku gestured to his face - albeit stiffly - and said "It's fine. Really. You.. know where not to touch."

The sore, still swollen gland whose marks Katsuki swore were darkening by the day? Yeah, Katsuki knew when he lifted the rag to dab at Izuku's upper lip and chin that touching that area would lead to claws in his own throat. He worked his way down cautiously for that reason, down from the blood crusted in Izuku's nose, to where it smeared down his jaw and the side of his neck.

The steady rise and fall of Izuku's shoulders stilled when the rag crept down his throat, and Izuku clenched his hands into fists. He didn't tilt his head, neither to help Katsuki reach or out of submission, even as Katsuki's eyes and the rag traced curiously down his neck. He made quick but careful work of the sensitive skin there, skimming around his throat and down to the high neck of the undershirt where the last of the blood was.

"Done." Katsuki felt the need to say, just to get Izuku breathing again as he pulled away to set the rag aside. He stood again, going to rummage in the middle drawer of the bedside table, while Izuku leaned on one of his hand to look over his shoulder silently.

When he turned around, producing a light green mixture in a clear jar, Izuku's expression once again contorted in suspicion. Katsuki held up a hand, then pointed to the jar. "Burn ointment. Granny Chiyo enchanted it, too, so leave it on overnight and there should be nothing left."

He stared back in confusion. "I'm not burned?"

"What the _fuck_?" Katsuki didn't even blink at him. "Is this a fucking act or something? No one has that high of a pain tolerance, are you lying, now? I burned your cheek, dumbass. Don't hide it."

"No you didn't, I said no qu- you _cheated_ too! Oh my God, not only did you forfeit, but you also just lose by default, Katsuki!" Izuku snickered, his wet cheeks at least scrunched in a grin.

"I didn't cheat because it wasn't deliberate, brat. Now get over here." Katsuki grumbled, coming over to grip Izuku's chin so he could stick his fingers in the salve and smooth it over his cheek. "Do you feel _that_?"

Izuku rolled his eyes, patting the spot next to him. "Shut up, Katsuki. I can feel it just fine."

"Your cheek's pink, idiot. A little more and there would have been blistering, and you didn't even say anything." He prodded, swiping a thin layer of salve over his cheek before pausing, turning his chin, and adding another layer to be sure.

"I'm going to take that as your admittance of guilt."

"Shut the fuck up."

He laughed again, watching Katsuki cap the ointment and set it aside while making a stupid, awkward gesture towards his arm.

"All yours." He muttered, his own cheeks feeling warm once again when he sat down exactly in the spot Izuku's hand once occupied. It set them too close, since Izuku immediately shifted back to get a better look, but he immediately became almost professional when he started looking over the wounds he inflicted.

Katsuki hadn't been wearing anything but a black undershirt under the orange top, so there was no need to painstakingly peel off any ruined clothing.

He couldn't imagine Izuku would be very gentle about it anyway.

But Izuku seemed to deem the bite the more serious injury, because he grunted in displeasure while grabbing another clean, damp rag. "What? Does it have to come off?" Katsuki griped, unsure how he felt about an omega taking care of his injury.

"Not quite. Although, I did bite you in a spot that's hard to heal, since-" He made a swinging gesture with his arm, and Katsuki watched as the skin over his shoulder stretched and twisted. "-that area's so versatile. Blunt punctures are also harder to deal with."

"Who died and made you medic?" was Katsuki's only quip as Izuku got to work. It was the only thing he could get out, given the shock of Izuku's gentle touch with the rag was enough to startle him like some stupid knotheaded alpha vying for any omega's attention. His careful dabs and swipes were a lot more practiced than Katsuki's, and he cleaned the wound without managing to brush any of his newly exposed nerves.

"Standard Midoriya training," came Izuku's quiet response. "We all carry basic medical supplies and are trained as rudimentary medics - it's part of basic training before we specialize. All of us trained for at least six months under a specialized medic, although some opt for more before they specialize."

"Solves the problem of resource allocation." Katsuki admitted gruffly, watching the rag travel down one of the trails of blood. "Figures to have everyone trained in several basic professions if there's so few of you."

"There'd be more of us if other clans hadn't opted to band together. We've never wanted war."

"So why is military service mandatory for five years?" Katsuki narrowed his eyes at him.

Izuku didn't miss a beat, the rag traveling back up his arm without a hitch. "Discipline is freedom."

He sighed through his nose. "You've mentioned that before."

"It's the truth."

"Yeah, I'm asking what the fuck you're talking about." Katsuki pointed out, watching Izuku's body twist to reach for the salve. He was a little too short to grab it comfortably, and a small noise of effort escaped him before he was rocking back onto the bed.

Izuku's fingers weren't the long, elegant digits Katsuki's were, and they were short and somewhat stubby. Callused, scarred, and strong were words Katsuki would use to describe them, but they were still incredibly light and deft as they rubbed the ointment into the wound. Goosebumps crawled up his forearm, but if Izuku noticed, he didn't say anything.

"It means in order to leave behind the limitations your body gives you, you have to be disciplined." Izuku's voice was quieter as he concentrated on coating the wound with the cream. "In order to function within a world that makes your gender your moniker, you have to be disciplined enough to make it insignificant."

Or nonexistent, Katsuki thought, slightly horrified. Izuku must have caught wind of his mood when he leaned back to grab the bandages now, because he was smiling somewhat. "Scary, huh?"

"That's fucked up." He said without a hint of remorse, "That's _fucked up,_ Izuku. You're- that's literally like saying I have blond hair - actually, the fuck I do, I don't have blond hair. I don't have hair at all!"

Izuku smiled bitterly. "And that's why you and the surrounding territories like to steal omegas from us."

"Well _yeah-_"

"And similarly, why we have a booming refugee population." He continued, wrapping the bandage around his shoulder with slow, practiced motions. "Omegas from states and states away flee from territories like this to escape the idea that they're helpless children, and yet precious objects. We give them the opportunity to become strong and powerful in their own right."

"While telling them they aren't who they are." Katsuki said, shaking his head. "Your people- use _poison_ to level the playing field! What the _fuck_?"

"Lucinium is a tool that we've studied extensively." Izuku said, his voice never wavering. He didn't know how many times he must have used this same explanation while on diplomatic missions, but the fact that he was able to legitimize poisoning part of himself made Katsuki's stomach roll with nausea.

"Right, and it's making you sick. You've got black marks on your glands and apparently that's a symptom associated with _complications of lucinium withdrawal._ Those are the most important part of you! They're- it's like cutting off your eyes!"

Izuku was working on his forearm now, carefully washing his arm and avoiding the skin at his wrists. "Then I'd rather be blind." He said mildly, and Katsuki made a wordless noise of frustration. "Look- this is- I don't want to argue right now, Katsuki."

"It's not exactly the easiest subject to drop," Katsuki muttered dryly, but Izuku's fingers were working at his forearm, somehow tricking his punctured arm into thinking it was perfectly whole and receiving a massage.

"Some other time," Izuku said wearily, using that same dam voice that quelled Katsuki's urge to argue. "Not when we're having a good day."

This qualified as a good day? He had to retort mentally, even if Izuku was right, and there had been no explosive arguments, no tears and desperation, no heavy, uncomfortable silences between them as they were forced together.

This had been.. A _fairly_ good day.

If you squint.

"Whatever," Katsuki muttered, conceding once again, and some of the tension in between Izuku's shoulders eased while he wrapped the rest of the roll of bandages around Katsuki's forearm.

The rest of the process was slow, Katsuki watching the slow winding of Izuku's hand around his own forearm, and then the look of intent on his face as he checked the bandages' security around his arm. "Not too tight?" 

"It's fine."

"Not too loose?"

"Still fine."

Izuku's smile was small as he stood up, but there nonetheless. "I guess we should get dressed for dinner, then."


End file.
